Becky didn't have a clue what was going on. Lily questioned her about everything minutely, unable to find out anything in the slightest. The worst part was, or at least to Lily, was that Becky really didn't seem bothered.
"We went through enough last year, didn't we? I mean, didn't you guys almost get killed or something like that?"
"Precisely!" Lily exclaimed. "'Something like that!' Nothing actually happened.
"Except that you met one of the most evil wizards of all time and nearly died," Becky pointed out without batting an eyelash.
Lily pouted. "If you really want to be picky about it," she muttered. To cover up for herself, she asked, "Where're the guys, anyway?"
"Um, last I heard, they were trying to find a way to make a bed float so they can scare the first-years with ghost stories, floating beds, flickering lights- so far they've just broken all the light bulbs, though- and the such. Why? Already sick of my company?" Becky peered at her suspiciously.
"Oh, no!" Lily exclaimed nervously. "No, not at all."
Becky leaned back and sighed. "All right, then. What do you want to do? Because I am not going to library. Ever, ever again! Ever ever ever ever again!
Lily sank deeper into her seat. She couldn't possibly be the only one out of the entire group that liked the library. But apparently, she was. "Fine, then," she muttered. "No library for you."Good," Becky said, though she still sounded suspicious. Looking back at her puzzle, she said, "It's so boring here in the summer. I'm actually kind of glad I had to stay with Auntie Hammie."
"Better than being back home," Lily pointed out. "With the Dursleys." Making a face, she sank back into her misery.
"I've been meaning to ask you about that. Do they smell? Because my Auntie Hammie does, and if the Dursleys don't smell, then they don't hold a candle to Auntie Hammie."
"They snore."
"So does Auntie Hammie."
"No, they really snore," Lily said emphatically.
"Not like Auntie Hammie."
"Worse."
"Impossible. No one can possibly conceive of anything worse than Auntie Hammie's snoring."
Lily shook her head in pity. "Perhaps you're too young to know," she said sadly.
"To young nothing!"
Surprisingly, the argument continued. Apparently, it's hard to get into an argument, even a silly one, and stop of your own volition, unless you have remarkable self-control. And in case you haven't yet noticed, Lily and Becky don't have much self-control. So the "argument" escalated until several minutes later, when Lily heard the voices of several voices, slowly getting closer.
She stood and put a hand out to Becky to tell her to keep quiet. She tilted her head a bit as if that might actually help her to hear better.
Becky, however, took the gesture to mean "shut up" and hence got offened. "What d'you mean, shut-" Catching Lily's glare full-force, she instantly went quiet.
Lily listened intently, and before the spiders were very close at all, she had the gist of what they were trying to tell her. She lowered her hand to her side and sighed. "Dad's up to something. The spiders can't listen to anything in the library again. Which isn't very nice of him, I must say." She crossed her arms and pouted.
"Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to do more than that," Harry said, coming up from behind with Hagrid at her side. "You'll have to come with us. You and James, I mean."
"Why?" she asked suspiciously.
Harry looked uncomfortable. "Well, you and James are going to try and find out what's going on, I know, no matter if I ask or not. I'm asking now, though, and I'm . . . also doing something else. Something a bit more drastic to help."
"Which is?" Lily pressed.
Harry braced himself. "I'm taking away your ability to speak with spiders for the year, Lily."
Hagrid slapped her on the back. "Welcome back ter Hogwarts!" he said warmly.
Sorry it took so long. After all the emails and other notes, I realized that the least I could do was try to work on this again. Due to lack of inspiration, however, it might not flow, and, well, there may be good-ups. Also, as I haven't read the books in a while (I'm in college now and seeing textbook paragraphs in my sleep), well, I just hope you're forgiving and that you enjoy it. I'll try to work on it a bit more, though. Maybe even finish it!