Lily Evans and the Elven Book

by Bethany Jean

Voldemort has not yet announced his presence, but a series of disappearances and a murder has cast a pall over Hogwarts and its students. Lily has information that could stop him. Can she and her friends figure out the clues in time?

13. Dumbledore's Warning

Chapter 13: Dumbledore's Warning

The next morning, the girls woke up early and made their way up to the Owlery. They found Romulus, who was very excited to see them, and sent him off with the letter. On their way back downstairs, they heard several voices floating up the stairwell to them. Alice nearly hissed in disgust when she realized it was Bellatrix, LeStrange and Snape. "Just who I wanted to see this morning!" Lily groaned.

There was no way to avoid them, and as Alice pointed out, they weren't sure that they wanted to, even if they could. They were Gryffindors, after all. They rounded a bend in the stairway and came face to face with the three first-year Slytherins. Bellatrix looked like she had been given a late Christmas present. "Oooh!" She squealed, her eyes menacing. "What have we here? It's my wonderful cousin's little fan club, if I'm not mistaken. The blood-traitor, the half-blood, born of another blood traitor, and the mudblood," she said, glancing at them each in turn.

"You better watch your mouth, Black!" Alice said threateningly, reaching for her wand. Lily and Amelia followed suit, keeping a wary eye on Bellatrix, but LeStrange already had his out.

"I don't think you want to do that," LeStrange said, pointing his wand menancingly at the three of them. They all continued to grip their wands. "Go on, put them down," he said, sneering.

Snape stood by quietly, his wand still away, though he had his hand on the end of it, and looked ready to pull it out at any moment, if need be. Alice glared at LeStrange. "Your name's LeStrange, isn't it?"

LeStrange nodded, looking somewhat taken aback, but he didn't lower his wand. "I thought so," Alice said, now smirking at him. Lily and Amelia both looked at her in surprise. "You should know my family, as well, then. It was my Grandpa that put your no good father in Azkaban." LeStrange gave her a murderous look, and then shouted a curse, but he was too late. Alice had already done the elementary level shield charm they'd learned shortly before Christmas in Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the curse rebounded, knocking LeStrange down. For a moment, it looked like nothing else would happen, but then LeStrange's eyes began to bulge.

As the girls watched in amazement, LeStrange swelled up so much that he began to resemble a giant beach ball in Hogwarts robes. Bellatrix's look turned from one of great amusement to one of horror and then to panic, when Lestrange's legs could no longer touch the ground, and he started rolling toward the stairs. Bellatrix grabbed the sleeve of one of his robes and yelled at Snape to help her. Bellatrix's yells snapped Snape out of his stupor, and he looked between Bellatrix and the three girls, torn. It looked as though he wanted nothing more than to curse them, but at Bellatrix's second cry, he also turned to help LeStrange.

"Parkers 2, LeStranges 0," Alice said with a chuckle as Snape and Bellatrix began half carrying, half rolling LeStrange down the stairs.

"You'll pay for this, Parker," they heard Bellatrix say as the three Slytherins disappeared around the corner. The three girls burst into laughter.

They were still giggling when they arrived in the Great Hall for breakfast and sat down next to the Marauders, who glanced at them in curiosity. "What in the name of Merlin have you three been up to that's so funny?" Lupin asked with a smile.

"Just playing a little beach ball," Alice said, and the three girls collapsed into giggles again.

"They've gone mad," Pettigrew squeaked.

Amelia wiped a tear from her eye. "We haven't either," she said, reaching for a plate of pancakes. "You'd be laughing too if you'd just seen Rodolphus LeStrange swell up like a giant beach ball and go rolling down the stairs." When she said this, Potter's fork went clanging to the ground, and Black dropped his glass of milk, spilling liquid all over his robes. Lupin gave them a look of mixed admiration and surprise, while Pettigrew looked confused. The girls erupted into a fit of giggles again at the reactions of the four boys.

Black flushed, and grabbed a napkin to wipe up the milk, which was soaking into his robes rapidly. "It's not funny," he said gruffly, causing the girls to laugh even harder. Potter bent down to retrieve his fork, but bumped his head on the table on the way up, sending them into another gale of laughter. The boys' surprised expressions had turned to glares at the girls' amusement with their shock.

"What happened?" Lupin asked when the girls had finally stopped giggling enough to talk.

Alice took a couple of deep breaths, and then told the boys the story. The boys also laughed at the description of LeStrange beginning to roll down the steps, and the rage on the face of Bellatrix. "Looks like you handled that quite well," Potter said, smiling. "Of course, had it been us, we'd have cursed Bellatrix and Snape as well…"

"Still could, Jamesy," Black said eagerly. "We need to defend Gryffindor's honor."

Lily's expression went from one of amusement to one of outrage in a split second. "Don't you dare use this as an excuse to start an all out war with Snape! We took care of it, no harm was done—,"

"At least not to us," Alice chimed in, still laughing.

"So there's no need to go and retaliate, because all it will do is lose Gryffindor more points!" Lily finished.

Black and Potter looked like they were going to dissent, but Lupin stepped in. "Of course there's no need to retaliate," he said soothingly to Lily. "We would never think of instigating a fight with Snape." Lily wanted to believe him, but there was something about the look he gave to Black, Potter and Pettigrew that told Lily otherwise.

Amelia must have thought so, too. "Give me your word," she said to Lupin.

"What?" he asked, clearly surprised.

"Your word. Give us your word that you won't go starting more trouble with Snape," Lily repeated, crossing her arms and giving Alice a look that clearly said to agree with her.

Alice looked disappointed, but as Lily's look turned to a glare, she reluctantly said, "Oh all right. Me, too. I want to hear you say you won't go starting anything else with Snape."

Potter shook his head. "Oh this is ridiculous. What business is it of yours what we do?"

Lily glared at him. "What do you mean, 'what business is it of ours'? We're in Gryffindor. It's our house that suffers when the four of you—,"

"Why do you always act like it's us that starts everything?" Potter interrupted, his voice now rising. "Snape isn't the innocent bloke you think he is, and neither are his friends."

Lily took several deep breaths before answering. "Snape was the only one who didn't have his wand out, ready to curse. If he was the kind of person you say he is, I doubt he would have hesitated to hex us!"

Black looked thoughtful. "Now that's a mighty good point, Evans," he said slowly.

"Of course it is!" Lily said, then looked startled as what he had just said sunk in. "What do you mean, it is?" she said, suspicious now.

Lupin cut in before Black could answer. "Sirius is right. Believe what you will, Lily, but Snape is always trying to hex us whenever there are no teachers around. It's odd that he hesitated with you."

Lily had no idea where they were going with this. Apparently Pettigrew didn't, either, for he chimed in, "Maybe he likes Lily." Black gave Pettigrew a look that clearly said he thought that was the most idiotic suggestion he'd ever heard, but Potter looked furious. He took a deep breath as Black spoke.

"Snape likes Lily?" Black said in a dumbfounded voice. "You've said some dumb things before, Petey, but that one has to take the cake!"

Lily was now offended. "Why's it so hard to believe someone might like me? Lupin doesn't think I'm so bad," she said, now turning to Lupin. "Is it so unreasonable that Snape would like me? Well?  Remus?" she said, now glaring at Lupin, who was staring determinedly at his plate. "Fine. Just because you all find me to be intolerable doesn't mean another boy will," she said huffily, shoving her plate away.

"It's not—," Lupin began, but Lily cut him off.

"I'm not hungry anymore," she said, standing up. "I'll see you girls in class." With a last glare at the four boys, she walked out of the Great Hall.

"You don't think she—" Lily heard Potter say as she walked away.

Black laughed. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about, Jamesy." Lily was so angry that she didn't even bother to wonder what James didn't have to worry about.

Lily arrived in the Transfiguration classroom, still steaming about the conversation with the Marauders.  She looked up when Professor McGonagall approached, surprised that she had entered the classroom before the students had assembled.  She did not look pleased.  "Miss Evans, I need to speak to you, Miss Parker, and Miss Bones," she said sternly.  "Please remain after class is finished."  She turned and strode back up the aisle and into her office off of the classroom.  Lily watched her retreat, apprehensive.  What did she need to talk to them about?  The class began to fill in around them.  The Marauders, for once, did not sit next to them, and instead chose seats beside Kaylie and Desdamona, who were sitting near the back of the room. 

Alice and Amelia arrived shortly thereafter, discussing Frank's whereabouts.  Lily suddenly realized that he hadn't been at breakfast, and felt ashamed for not realizing it sooner.  He must not have come back with the rest of the class.  Alice and Amelia told her that nobody at the Gryffindor table had heard from Frank all of break, and that she was going to talk to her dad, who knew Frank's uncle, and see if he had heard anything.  Lily nodded, and then passed on the news that McGonagall wanted to see them after class. 

"Us?" Alice asked, raising her eyebrows in surprise.  "What'd we do?"

"Dunno," Lily mumbled, pulling out her parchment and quill.  "But she didn't look too pleased."

Amelia looked suddenly panicked.  "You don't think it's about LeStrange, do you?  I mean, they must have taken him to Madam Pomfrey.  She might have said something."

"I doubt it," Lily said, now writing the date at the top of her parchment.  "I've heard the Marauders talk about her, and she seems to be quite discreet.  I wonder if they took him to Amos."

Alice hissed.  "That'd be just like them.  I bet they told him that they were just walking down the hall and we hexed them."

"Shhh," Amelia said, as Bellatrix and Snape arrived, without LeStrange.  "I thought LeStrange would be with him."

"It will probably take awhile to deflate all of the air out of him," Alice said with a smirk.  The three girls giggled as McGonagall strode into the classroom in her usual no-nonsense way.  They stopped talking and McGonagall began a lecture on rock transfiguration. 

After class, they approached the front of the room apprehensively.  "Please wait in my office," McGonagall said gruffly as Snape approached her desk.  Lily dropped her quill and bent down, pretending to look for it, in the hopes that she could overhear what Snape was going to say.  Alice and Amelia quickly caught on to what she was doing, and also dropped to their knees, pretending to help her look.  "Yes, Mr. Snape?" McGonagall said, and then noticing the three girls crouching down and pretending to look at the ground, she snapped, "Are you three waiting for a written invitation to my office?" 

"Please Professor," Alice said.  "Lily dropped her quill."

McGonagall peered at them sternly.  "Unless this quill is somehow more valuable than those used by most Hogwarts students, I trust it will still be here when I am through speaking with you three.  She can retrieve it then."  The three girls nodded, and hurried toward McGonagall's office. 

When they arrived, Alice and Amelia sat down, while Lily wandered around the room.  One wall was lined with the chairs that Alice and Amelia were sitting on, and across from those was the desk.  The ceilings in this room were extremely tall, and bookshelves lined the remaining three walls from bottom to top, filled to overflowing with books of all kinds.  On McGonagall's desk was a picture of a group of witches and wizards that Lily did not recognize.  Or at least, Lily thought it was witches and wizards.  She picked up the picture so she could examine it more closely.  None of the people in the picture were moving, and they were all wearing muggle clothing.  The door opened, and Lily dropped the picture back onto the desk quickly, moving to sit down beside Alice and Amelia as Professor McGonagall strode in.

"Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with the three of you in his office," she said, scribbling something on a piece of paper.  The three girls looked at each other, appalled.  They were certain that what they had done to LeStrange did not warrant a visit to the headmaster's office.  "But Professor, we were just defending ourselves.  It was a shield charm that landed LeStrange--," Lily began, but Professor McGonagall cut her off.

"You have Defense Against the Dark Arts next, do you not?"  Alice nodded.  McGonagall scribbled something on to a piece of parchment on her desk, then walked over to the fire, grabbed some powder, sprinkled it into the fire, said "Professor Amos" and threw the note into the fireplace, where it was quickly engulfed in green flames.  "I've just sent a note to Professor Amos, explaining your absence," she said, acting as though throwing a note into the fireplace and expecting it to find its way to the appropriate person was not unusual (which, now Lily thought about it, it probably wasn't, for her).  She put her quill into her desk, and strode toward the door, motioning for the girls to follow her.  "I'll take to you to Professor Dumbledore."

The girls trailed silently out of the door after her.  After going through a series of doorways, up several staircases, down several more staircases, and then back up again, they arrived in front of a stone gargoyle.  "Jelly Babies," McGonagall said, and the gargoyle sprang aside, revealing a step that began to rise, reminding Lily of a muggle escalator.  Professor McGonagall stepped onto the step, motioning for the girls to follow.  When they arrived at the door to Dumbledore's office, they found it shut. 

McGonagall knocked softly, and after a moment, the door opened, revealing Dumbledore, who was smiling broadly.   "Lily, Alice, Amelia," he said, "I've been expecting you."  He motioned for them to come in.  "Thank you, Minerva," he said.  McGonagall nodded, and began to descend the staircase as the trio followed Dumbledore into his office.  Alice stopped dead just as Lily noticed that Dumbledore had not been alone when they'd arrived.

"Good to see you, Alice," said the other occupant of the room, standing up and turning to face them.  Lily looked in surprise between the man and Alice, noticing that Alice's face had gone completely pale.

"Grandpa!" Alice exclaimed, a panicked note in her voice. "What are you doing here? Is everything all right? Mum, Dad…?"

Mr. Parker smiled merrily, his eyes twinkling much like Dumbledore's had the habit of doing. "Everything is quite all right, dear. Your mum and dad are fine," he said, catching her in a big hug then pulling back and looking over her head at Lily and Amelia. "Do you want to introduce me to your friends?"

Alice looked relieved. "Of course," she said, grinning now. "This is Lily Evans and this is Amelia Bones." She motioned to each of them in turn.

Mr. Parker's round face, so much like Alice's, crinkled into a smile. He shook hands with Amelia, and then grasped Lily's, peering closely into her eyes so that Lily had the distinct impression that he was reading her mind. She hoped fervently that this wasn't the case, because she strongly suspected that he had told Dumbledore the story about how and why they had come into possession of the missing page of the stolen text, and she was feeling rather irritated with him for betraying their confidence like he had. As this thought flitted through her mind, Mr. Parker winked and squeezed her hand, before releasing it with a chuckle. "No mystery why you're a Gryffindor, dear," he said. He turned and shook hands with Dumbledore, saying "It was good to see you again, old friend." He picked up his hat and set it on his head, smiling as he did so. "It's always nice to reminisce about old times."

Dumbledore returned the smile. "I agree, Neville. It's important to keep old friendships alive, particularly under the current circumstances."

Mr. Parker nodded. "I trust I'll be seeing you again soon." He turned to the girls, catching Alice in a hug again. "Be careful," he said as he began to walk down the steps.

Alice laughed. "That's Grandpa's way of saying goodbye," she said as they watched him disappear.

"Wish he'd have stuck around," Amelia whispered as they reluctantly turned to face Dumbledore. Lily silently agreed. She wasn't looking forward to whatever punishment she was going to receive for exploring a secret passageway while she was supposed to be in detention.

"Please have a seat, girls," Dumbledore said, walking behind his desk and settling himself into his chair. The girls sat down without a word.

"Do you know why I've asked to speak to the three of you?" Dumbledore asked them kindly. Lily thought that Alice and Amelia probably were thinking the same thing she was, but all three shook their heads.

Dumbledore smiled, and something in his eyes gave Lily the distinct impression that he did not believe them. "Mr. Parker has just told me what you overheard on the train ride back from Christmas break, Lily," he explained, folding his hands and resting his chin on them. Before any of them could say anything, he continued. "Now, you're probably wondering why I called all three of you up here when it's Lily that overheard, so I'll explain. It has been my experience that friends tend to follow in each other's footsteps. Therefore, if either you, Alice," he paused and nodded at Alice, "or you, Amelia," he paused again and nodded at Amelia, "had been on the train with Lily, you would have been with her when she stumbled across the conversation of Mr. Malfoy and his companions, wouldn't you agree?"

They nodded, and Dumbledore chuckled quietly. "Indeed. So therefore, all three of you, and not just Lily, need to hear what I am about to say." He paused and looked at them piercingly, his expression suddenly serious. "Students frequently hear information from their parents, who think it safe to speak in front of their children. They often pass it on to other students, and may not be as careful as their parents in choosing to whom to reveal the information, or indeed, in choosing the appropriate place. Oftentimes, this sensitive information is overheard by people that the speaker did not intend to hear," Dumbledore again paused and looked at Lily, and she understood that he was talking about Malfoy's conversation on the train. "This is true, whether a student's parents are law-abiding, or whether they join forces with a dark wizard. Therefore, students are frequently a great asset to those aurors whose job it is to seek out and contain underground threats from dark wizards, so I do not discourage students from keeping their ears open." Here he glanced at each in turn. "However, students that overhear this kind of information may find themselves in danger if the dark wizard or his supporters were to find out that they possess knowledge of the wizard's plans. Do you understand what I am saying?"

None of the three answered right away. If Lily had understood Dumbledore correctly, he had been very diplomatically telling them to continue looking for the sort of opportunity that she had had on the train to learn about the dark wizard's plans, and to continue passing this information on to Mr. Parker. However, he was also warning them to be discreet and not to discuss it when they could be overheard; to, in Mr. Parker's words, be careful. Lily nodded, her head swimming. Dumbledore smiled. "Good," he said. "I trust that I won't have to speak of this with you again, then. Do you have any questions for me?"

Lily hesistated, unsure if she should ask the question that had been swimming around in her head as soon as Dumbledore had started talking. "Yes, Professor," she said finally. "Do you believe what Malfoy was saying. That is, do you think he was telling the truth about the dark wizard, and Frank's dad and all?"

Alice and Amelia, who had turned to look at Lily when she spoke, both now stared at Dumbledore. He peered at Lily, his eyes still serious behind his half-moon spectacles. "I'm afraid that I am not at liberty to discuss what I may or may not believe on the matter," he answered carefully. "Particularly with a peer of Lucius Malfoy's," his tone made it quite clear that this line of questioning was done. "Do you have any other questions?"

Alice spoke this time. "Professor, we're friends of Frank Longbottom's," she said quickly. "And we couldn't help but notice that he didn't return from break. Is he going to come back to Hogwarts?"

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, his face relaxing and the twinkle returning to his eye. "You can stop worrying about that, Alice," he said with a reassuring smile. "I spoke with Mrs. Longbottom shortly before your grandfather arrived, and she has informed me that he'll be returning to classes next Monday. Are there any more questions?"

The girls shook their heads. "Good. I've got nothing further for you, and seeing as how Professor Amos isn't expecting you back for the remainder of the class period, it would seem a shame for you to interrupt his lecture. If you make your way to the Gryffindor common room rather quickly, you shouldn't be caught by Professor McGonagall on hall patrol." They gaped at him. Lily couldn't believe that the headmaster of their school was in effect telling them to skive off the remainder of Defense Against the Dark Arts. She didn't know what to say. Alice, however, had no such qualms.

"Thank you, Professor!" she said with a grin as they filed down the stairs and made their way toward Gryffindor tower.

The girls arrived at the common room without being caught, and relaxed into their favorite chairs, discussing the meeting with Dumbledore.  "Do you really think it's okay that we skipped class?" Lily asked yet again.

Alice rolled her eyes. "For the fifth time, YES! The headmaster of the school told us we could; I don't think we'll get in trouble for it."

"Yes, but what if Amos covers something important?" Lily tried again.

This time it was Amelia who answered. "Then we'll ask Remus for his notes," Amelia said patiently. "And if we learned a new spell, Remus'll show us that, too."

Lily still didn't look convinced. "What if…" Lily's question was muffled by the pillow that had just hit her in the face. She pulled the pillow off of her and saw that Amelia and Alice were laughing.

"Just enjoy it, okay?" Alice said. Lily laughed. She had been being a little ridiculous, but she couldn't help it. It was in her nature to worry about things like skivving off classes. She had certainly never done it before. As she was getting ready to apologize, a second pillow hit her, this time from Amelia. Deciding to stop worrying for the time being, she grinned, and pulled out her wand, launching pillows from all over the common room at Alice and Amelia, until a pile of pillows covered them completely.

They struggled out from under the pile, and began launching them back. An all-out pillow war ensued, until Black's voice called out, "Evans, Parker and Bones! I don't believe it." They paused mid-fight and looked up to see the four Marauders standing at the entrance to the common room, amazed looks on all of their faces.

"I think I need to sit down, mate," Potter said, settling dramatically into a nearby chair. "The three Gryffindor princesses skipped a class to have a pillow fight?"

Lupin looked a little put-out. "You three skipped class?" he asked. "I thought you weren't there because something had happened to you!"

Pettigrew stood there gaping at them, speechless. Lily blushed, but saw Alice looking at her, an evil glint in her eye. Alice motioned very slightly toward the pillows, and mouthed the words "on three". Lily nodded imperceptibly, and watched as Alice gave the same instructions to Amelia. When Alice counted to three, they all launched the pillows at the Marauders, knocking Potter off his chair, and burying all four. The girls took off up the stairs to the dormitory. When they were far enough up to be safe from retaliation, they turned to watch as the boys began to struggle out from underneath the pile of pillows

"We'll get you back for this!" Black shouted, but he was laughing.

"This definitely means war," Potter added.

"I can't believe you skipped classes," Lupin said.

"My foot is stuck!" Pettigrew hollered. The three girls laughed. The pillow on top of Pettigrew's foot had somehow gotten stuck underneath Potter's chair when it had tipped over, and it was pinning him to the ground. Black removed the pillow and helped Pettigrew to his feet.

"You can come on down, girls," Potter said, still sitting on the ground where he had landed when he'd been knocked off of his chair. "You don't have to worry about us retaliating when you're expecting it."

Black nodded, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes. "Yes, surprise attacks are much more fun."

Lupin grinned. "You three had better watch yourselves. I usually protect you whenever these two start plotting," he said, "but don't count on me to help you out this time."

They laughed, and began walking back down the stairwell towards the boys. "As long as we've got fair warning," Alice said. "We've beaten the Slytherins twice now, you four hardly scare us." Alice offered Potter a hand, and helped him up while the others began returning the pillows to where they belonged.

After they had straightened up the room, they turned to leave for lunch. "So why did you skip class?" Lupin asked as they walked toward the portrait hole.

Lily paused and looked around. The common room was still deserted, save for the seven of them. She quickly told them what Dumbledore had said. When she had finished, they stared at her. "Let me get this straight," Potter said, his eyes wide. "Dumbledore TOLD you to skip class?"

Amelia rolled her eyes. "That wasn't really the 'take home message' of the meeting, Potter," she said.

"Yes, we know," Black interrupted. "But he actually said not to return to Amos's class?"

Lily laughed. "In fact, he told us to hurry to avoid McGonagall's patrol of the hallway," she said.

Black and Potter exchanged incredulous glances. "Why doesn't he ever say that to us when WE get called to his office?" Potter asked.

"You'd think he'd do it at least once!" Black agreed, "We're there often enough."

Lupin laughed at his friends. "He probably knows that you'll skip without being told," he said wryly.

Black cocked his head at Lupin. "I reckon you're right about that, Remmy," he said with another laugh.

Lupin turned serious. "So Dumbledore wants us to keep our eyes and ears open for him?" he said thoughtfully, now looking very somber. "That sounds like he believes the threat from this dark wizard is very real."

Pettigrew let out a small squeak of fear, and Potter, Black, Alice, Amelia and Lily all stared at him, the light mood from a moment ago all but forgotten in the wake of Lupin's comment. Lily felt a shudder run down her spine. When you said it like that, she mused, that's exactly what it sounded like.