Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's notes: Well, this is the last chapter I'm putting up for right now. You can look for an update in ABOUT A WEEK… and if I don't update, get mad at me… write mean reviews, send threatening emails, try to murder me in my sleep with plastic spoons… no, on second thought, don't, or you'll never get to read more of the story… yeah, I'm crazy… what can ya do about it? =)

Chapter 11

The first few weeks of December passed by quickly for Lily, since she was involved with schoolwork again, and their teachers had been keeping them busy with plenty to do. Before she knew it, the sign-up sheet for staying over Christmas break was posted in the common room. She was first to put her name on the list. There was no way she was going home.

Several days later, she checked the list again. She only recognized two other names of Gryffindor fifth years; James Potter and Camille Honnete. She groaned inwardly. It was certainly going to be one interesting Christmas break.

After breakfast on the first day of break, everyone bid farewell to one another, and most everyone headed for the train, wheeling their trunks along behind them.

Only about thirty students remained in the Great Hall, most of them younger, a few older, than Lily. There were very few other fifth years, aside from Camille and James. Among them was Caleb, who Lily hadn't talked to in ages. Also Davey Gudgeon, who was in Hufflepuff; his third year sister Chloe who was in Gryffindor also stayed, Veronica Simon, a friend of Annica's who was in Ravenclaw, and a greasy looking Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape.

Dumbledore soon dismissed them back to their common rooms. Lily walked the corridors alone, hoping to avoid Camille and James. She succeeded by walking the long way, but nearly got scared to death by Peeves, who made a suit of armor nearly fall on top of her, all the while cackling maniacally.

Back in the empty common room, she decided to do some reading. Settling in her favorite armchair, nearest to the fire, she opened her book and began to read. She hadn't read more than a page and a half, when two loud voices filled the room. She glanced quickly over the top of her book, and saw that it was James and Theodore Wood, who was Head Boy and in seventh year. They were loudly discussing quidditch moves.

"Yeah, if we could just get Gudgeon better at blocking, we'd have a great advantage."

"She's so small though. She's even intimidated by the second years."

"Oh, is that ten-o'clock already?" asked Theodore. "I'm supposed to go see Dumbledore about some Head Boy thing. I'll see you later."

"All right, Wood," said James. "Later." Lily heard James approaching her, and tried to be more interested in her book, hoping he'd leave her alone. It didn't work.

"Hi Lily," he said cautiously. She put down her book.

"Hi James." She felt like yelling at him, until she saw how tentative he looked, almost scared. He sat down on a chair near her, his expression never changing.

"So, how are you, Lily?" he asked.

"I'm fine. You?"

"Oh, I'm all right."

"So, that was a pretty bad fall you took back at the quidditch game," Lily said. "Do you have any idea why you fell?" Mentally she slapped herself. Idiot! She thought. She just couldn't let it go.

"You know, it's strange," said James. "It almost felt like someone was controlling me, like relaxing or something, and I think something was controlling my broom. But the strange thing is, it's really hard to remember. I think it's got Dumbledore worried a whole lot more than he lets on." Lily nodded.

"James, you used to spend a lot of time around Camille, at quidditch practice and stuff. Do you find anything about her, um, suspicious at all?"

"Well, I think she's pretty strange, and she kind of looks like a toad, but suspicious, nah. What reason would I have?"

"I still think she's the one causing the attacks." Lily couldn't believe she was telling James that. He chuckled.

"I'm sorry, Lily, but that's absurd. Camille, knowing dark arts!" he snorted. "She might be smart, but she's much too much of a do-gooder to do that stuff."

"Or maybe that's what she wants us to think," said Lily. James laughed again.

"I think, you worry too much Lily. You act like Camille's Voldemort or something."

"Maybe she is," said Lily, only half joking. She and James both laughed. Suddenly, she realized who she was talking to. "You didn't seem to have any problem taking her for your quidditch team," she said coldly.

"I wouldn't care if the girl acted like an ape." It was Lily's turn to snort. "She's good at quidditch. Besides, I wanted you to be our seeker, but no one else on the team would listen. Not as though it matters now anyway. There aren't any more matches." Lily was feeling slightly sick, being this friendly with James after what he'd done.

"Look, James. I've got to go do some cleaning in the dorm. I'll see you around." She stood to leave.

"See you, Lily. Don't let Camille near you. She might bite you in your sleep or something." Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Sometimes you disturb me, Potter. The horror you may have caused me with that statement…" she shook her head. James laughed.

"See you at dinner, Lily."

"Dinner? What about lunch?" It was only ten fifteen.

"Oh, Wood and I are going… somewhere." He grinned. Lily shook her head.

"I don't want to know. See ya." She ascended the staircase and entered the dorm room. For once it was nice and empty.

She flopped back on her bed, feeling angry with herself for having a friendly conversation with James, but at the same time pleased. Why on earth did she have to like him? At least there was one good thing about him though, he didn't think Camille was the greatest human being to ever attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which seemed to be the popular opinion.

At lunch, Lily sat with Caleb. There was only one student table instead of four, because there were so few students.

"So, what's new with you?" Lily asked.

"Nothing much," Caleb mumbled. One thing Lily couldn't stand about him was that he always mumbled. "I hear you've been having some problems this year."

"Problems? What have you heard?" asked Lily.

"Well, the other day I heard you tried to push Camille out the window."

"Who told you?" Lily demanded.

"You mean it's true?"

"That's not the point, Caleb. Who told you?"

"Rae. She said she had to knock you over to make you stop. I figured it was just another one of her crazy stories."

"Nah, it's true," said Lily.

"What's wrong with Camille? She seems nice enough, and not too bad looking either." He glanced up the table to where she was sitting. Lily hit him on the arm disgustedly.

"What?" he asked stupidly.

"You make me sick," said Lily.

"Sure," muttered Caleb. "Well your face makes me sick," he mumbled under his breath.

"I heard that!" Lily snapped.

"I was just joking," Caleb mumbled. Lily left him to his ham sandwich, which he seemed very interested in suddenly.

"How are you, Lily?" Lily glanced up to see who was talking to her. It was Davey Gudgeon, who was a little strange and goofy looking, but really friendly.

"I'm fine Davey, you?" She smiled. He pushed his thick glasses back into place and grinned, displaying his crooked teeth.

"I'm good. Say, did you do your transfigurations essay yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just finished it up," said Lily.

"Great. Do you think you could read mine sometime and see if it sounds okay?" Lily smiled. Davey wasn't the brightest at school, but he tried really hard.

"Sure, I'd be happy to help you out."

"Thanks a lot, Lily."

"No problem." Lily finished her meal in silence and headed back to the common room, feeling more like her old self than ever. She'd yelled at Caleb, which was typical, and agreed to help Davey with his homework, something she used to frequently.

Back at the dorm, Camille still wasn't around. Lily's eye caught on her stack of books from the restricted section of the library. Temptation got the better of her. She walked over to Camille's nightstand, and read the titles.

Poisonous Potions, 1001 Most Deadly Elements of the Wizarding World, A History of the Dark Arts, Most Common Dark Arts Spells, and Avada Kedavra and Other Deadly Curses. Lily picked up Avada Kedavra and Other Deadly Curses and flipped through its pages. Sticking in a page with the heading Crucius and Other Torture Curses, she found a piece of parchment with neatly written notes on it. She looked more closely. Every word of them was written in French. Camille certainly was smart about keeping things secretive!

"Lily?" Camille's thick voice came from the doorway. Lily quickly slammed the book down and stepped away from Camille's nightstand.

"What were you doing?" Camille asked.

"Oh, I was just, you know, checking out your library books. They looked kind of interesting, for someone interested in the Dark Arts, that is." She raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"You had no business in my things," said Camille, all the while remaining perfectly calm. "But if you must know, I want to become an auror. That's why I have those books. I was studying."

"I see," said Lily, not knowing how to approach her confrontation from there.

"Well, I'm going to be going now. I'd appreciate it if you'd stay away from my things." With that, Camille walked out the door.

"Liar," Lily muttered under her breath. Feeling quite curious, she slipped the piece of parchment out of the book and made a copy of it quickly with her wand. She returned the original, tucking the copy in her pocket. There had to be someone who could read French that would translate it for her. She was just walking away from Camille's section of the room when she spotted a small leather book, which looked a lot like a journal. Lily's eyes lit up with curiosity. She knew it was wrong, but she lifted up the book and flipped it open. She groaned. Once again, completely written in French. She thought about taking the journal as well and getting someone to translate it, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. It just didn't seem like a decent thing to do, even if it was Camille.

***

That evening at dinner, Lily took a seat near the end of the table, by Chloe Gudgeon and some other third year she didn't recognize. James and Theodore walked in a few moments later, and, against Lily's wishes, they sat with her.

"Well, we had an interesting day, wouldn't you say, Theo?" James inquired.

"Yeah, quite." Lily could tell they were trying to get her to ask what they did. She remained silent, to irritate them.

"Sure was exciting," said James.

"Oh, I am just so dying to hear what exciting things happened to you today, oh great and wonderful James Potter," Lily cried dramatically.

"Well, if you insist." James grinned. "So we went to Hogsmeade, right?"

"How'd you do that?" Lily demanded. No one was supposed to be leaving the castle.

"Honestly, how little do you know about this school, anyway? There are only dozens of secret passages leading out of here, if you know the right places to look."

"Okay," said Lily. "Continue."

"So, we go to Hogsmeade, and we go to Zonko's, and they got this new item in. You spray it at someone, and say a phrase of your choice, and that's all they can say for the next four hours. It's really quite amusing. So, when we got back, we tried it out on Snape straight away, so now all he can say is 'So's your face.'" James paused for a minute to laugh.

"And that's not the best part. Just wait until you hear what comes next!" Theodore laughed.

"So, Snape's walking away from us, puzzled, and McGonagal comes walking down the corridor and says good day to him. So, of course he says so's your face. And then she started getting angry with him, and scolding him, and all he could do was keep saying it. He lost 10 house points and got a detention."

"But I think McGonagal got a bit suspicious after a while. I hope she doesn't figure out it was us," added Theodore.

"Don't worry about it," James brushed his thoughts aside. Suddenly, Lily got what she thought must have been the most brilliant idea she'd had for a long time.

"Do you think we could try some of that stuff on Camille?" she asked. James stared at her a moment. He shrugged.

"Sure, why not? If you want to."

"Great, after dinner then?"

"Just leave the planning to me, Lily. I'm an expert." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Sure, James."

"Hey, ever wonder who was really responsible for Dungbomb Spectacular '73?"

"Ew, that was you? That was the most disgusting, repulsive…"

"Brilliant event of the century!" he finished.

"I have to agree with Lily," said Theodore. "That was kind of sick."

"Well, the point is, I pulled it off. So getting Camille will be nothing."

***

After dinner, James insisted that Lily go back to the boys' dorms with her, to prepare for their quest to torture Camille. Lily agreed reluctantly. Theodore wouldn't join them; he insisted it was too immature a thing for the head boy to participate in. The boys' dorm was utterly disgusting. There were clothes, books, old food, and just about everything imaginable, and some things not, scattered all over the floor. Lily could have sworn she saw part of a rubber chicken sticking out from under someone's bed. There was scarcely a place to stand. Besides that, it smelled of some sort of odd mix between sweaty socks and the potions classroom. She tried not to breathe as she waited for James to find whatever he was looking for.

"Ah, here we go," he said finally, holding up a piece of shiny, silvery fabric. "This, is my invisibility cloak." Lily raised her eyebrows, genuinely impressed.

"Wow, aren't those really rare?"

"Yeah, this one belonged to my dad. So anyway, this is how we're going to get Camille. I'll wait under the cloak, in the common room, and you pretend to be reading. When she comes along, say something to her to get her to stop for a moment. I'll spray her, and say… What do we want her to repeat?"

"I look like a toad?"

"Nah, not funny enough. It's got to be something more random."

"I'm an evil freak?"

"No, that's not funny. How about the monkeys are coming. Can't you just see little miss monotone walking around the school telling everyone that?"

"Sure, I guess," replied Lily.

"Right then, we're ready for action."

***

Several minutes later, Lily was seated in the common room, pretending to be reading. She kept getting nervous, because she couldn't tell where James was. Every few minutes he'd stick out a random arm, hand, foot, or piece of hair to let her know where he was. After what seemed like ages, the portrait hole swung open. It was Camille! Lily immediately tried to stay focused.

"Oh, hi there Camille," she said, putting down her book and standing up.

"Hi, Lily," she said, glancing behind her suspiciously.

"So, how have you been?" Lily asked, trying to make conversation. Suddenly, she heard a spray, and a voice call "The monkeys are coming!" She tried as hard as she could not to laugh.

"Did you hear that?" Lily asked, trying to act surprised, expecting Camille to repeat it. But she was wrong. Camille turned around.

"Well, hello James," she said. Lily froze. James was still under the cloak. How did she know? "Trying to trick me, hm?"

"What are you talking about, Camille?" Lily played dumb. "I don't see James anywhere."

"You think I am a fool, Lily. I am smarter than you think I am. I know you were planning to make an idiot of me. But who is the idiot now, Lily Evans?" With that, Camille walked off to the dorm room, leaving James and Lily both in a state of complete shock.

"How in the world…?" asked Lily, as James slid off his cloak. "She must be powerful if she can see through your cloak."

"Nah, I don't think that's it at all. I'd bet you someone tipped her off about it and she faked knowing. I'll bet she's heard me talk about my cloak before. Sirius and I talk a lot at quidditch practices."

"I don't know," said Lily. "But something is definitely suspicious about her."

"Maybe," agreed James. "But I think you jump to conclusions."

"Well, one thing is really strange. How did she prevent the spray from working?"

"Ah, it's only joke store stuff, weak really. If you know it's coming ahead of time, you can do a simple little charm to prevent it from working. Remus does it all the time."