Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Twenty ll Charms And Premonitions
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"Slow down," panted James, as he grabbed onto the staircase railing to steady himself.
"No way!" Lily said in a singy-songy voice. She was at the top of the stairs again.
James had been chasing her ever since she had given him back the glasses. It was amazing how long they could both run for.
"I feel sick," Lily said suddenly, panting. She slid onto the floor, and leant her head back against the railing. She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing. She felt like she was going to throw up.
"Awww, you poor diddums," James said mockingly, chuckling. But he also sat down on the ground.
Lily glared down at him. She saw something glint on the floor and, without bothering to check what it was, she grabbed it and hurled it down at him. It bounced off his head.
"Ouch! Hey, that hurt!" James complained, looking up and rubbing his head.
"Whatever."
James looked around the floor and found the glinting object that Lily had thrown down. He picked it up and threw it back up at her.
"OW!"
Still glaring, Lily scrambled around and noticed the thing again. She bent down to study it closely and found it quite pretty. It was a silver circle with a purple gem in the middle. Little lines and markings ran across the edges. It looked like something that would hang off of a necklace or bracelet.
As she reached down to pick it up, she felt her fingertips twitch warningly and her body gave little, tremulous shakes. Lily stopped and wondered if she was okay.
Nothing happened.
Shrugging it off, Lily grabbed the small charm. As soon as her hand made contact with it, everything disappeared as her head hit the floor.
---
"Membo astia strusious," chanted a circle of dark wizards. They were surrounding another wizard, a tall one whose eyes were closed.
Lily gazed astonishingly as a bright purple light suddenly shot out from underneath the dark wizards.
She turned her head and saw a witch. She was tall, with a pale, hard face. She was hidden in the shadows, but the purple light glowed on her. Her black hair was done up in a hard, stiff bun.
There were two girls in the room. Two young girls. They both had black hair done up in buns and were standing at the witch's feet. They looked nervous and scared of what was happening. One of them kept hiding her face in her supposedly mother's robe and whimpering as the light kept on shining.
The wizard who had been standing in the middle stepped out as the light faded away. The circle of dark wizards gave a cry of anguish and collapsed onto the floor.
Lily had no idea what was happening as she gazed on.
The whole scene froze and she prepared herself to shoot up awake back at Hogwarts. But instead, another scene replaced the oold one. Two little toddlers, barely two years old, were standing up in a crib.
The redhead recognised them to be the two little girls she had seen before.
The witch, who looked a bit younger, walked forward. She placed something around one of the babies' necks. It tinkled as the witch put it on. Lily briefly saw that it was a fine silver chain with a small charm.
The same charm she had touched.
Freezing up a little, Lily watched as the witch put another indentical necklace on the other baby. She bowed her head and walked back as the wizard stepped out of the shadows.
As she felt her mind being sucked away, she looked at the babies again. One of them gurgled happily.
Lily frowned and bit her lip.
Something was niggling her at the back of the mind.
---
She opened her eyes. Yup, she was back at Hogwarts.
James was hovering above her, as per usual.
Ewww, that sounded wrong.
Lily looked over to her outstretched hand, and saw the charm in her palm.
"You okay?"
She nodded slowly as she sat up, bringing the charm closer to her face, "It was just another premonition..."
"Really? I thought our powers had been bound!" James exclaimed, looking amazed.
Lily half-shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe it wore off, or something."
"So what did you see?" he asked eagerly.
She squinted as she tried to remember every single, little detail.
"Um... a circle of dark wizards -- don't ask me how I know they were dark -- and they were like, chanting. They were surrounding this other wizard -- who also looked dark. In the corner of the room, there was a witch and two little girls. When the wizards stopped chanting a purple light shone all over -- it was creepy. I thought the premonition was going to end, but then it changed and I saw the girls as babies. Then the witch came along and put necklaces on them, and the necklace -- it had this charm."
She held it up stiffly for James to see.
He gaped at it, quite speechless.
"That's really odd."
"I'll say," Lily said uncomfortably.
James bit his lip, then said, "Do you think we should tell Dumbledore? I mean, you're not supposed to get premonitions now. Our powers were bound."
Lily thought about it, then shook her head, "No. I mean, it could be just a wild goose chase."
"A what?"
"Never mind, let's go back to the common-room. I think the others are probably wondering where we are," Lily said dismissively, pocketing the charm.
---
Di slowly opened her eyes and got up groggily. She yawned and looked around.
"Hello Di," came Anna's voice soothingly.
Di yawned again, "H--hey. What happened?"
"You just fell asleep," Paige explained, "Don't worry, you were only asleep for like, fifteen minutes."
"Oooh," Di nodded and rubbed her eyes. The others resumed talking, which suited her just fine. She didn't feel like making conversation with her friends at the moment; she was much too tired.
The Fat Lady swung open and Lily and James tripped over each other's feet, both trying to get in at the same time.
"So typical," Remus chuckled.
"Hey! Look what I found!" Lily called loudly to them, attracting unwanted stares from other students.
"Hush, Lily, indoor voice please..." Paige murmured half-sarcastically.
They all stared at the charm the redhead was holding out.
"That's quite pretty," commented Sirius.
Remus nodded in agreement. Di was looking at the charm with wide blue eyes that seemed to expand to the moon. She subconsciously mouthed something, but no one noticed.
"Yeah, well, I got a premonition out of it."
Paige and Anna both gasped as if they had rehearsed it.
"Didn't your powers get bound?" Paige wanted to know.
Lily nodded slowly, "Yeah... I'm not sure how I recieved the premonition."
"Are you going to tell Dumbledore?"
James and Lily glanced at each other.
"Not at the moment... we think he's busy," James said slowly.
"Busy?" Sirius said in disbelief.
"We just don't want to bother him," Lily said with a sigh, "I mean, it's not of great importance, now, is it?"
"Well... it depends on what you saw," Anna said nochalantly.
So Lily explained it, and by the end of it, all of them had their jaws dropped open.
"Tell Dumbledore," Sirius suggested instantly.
Lily sighed resignedly, and glanced helplessly at James.
It seemed like the only thing to do. Other than...
"Is it possible the dark wizard the others were surrounding was... Wyntone?" Remus said mildly.
James raised his eyebrows, "You know, that could be possible..."
"Well, we're going for a spin to the library to look up stuff on him, anyway," Paige said logically, "Tomorrow afternoon?"
No one protested.
---
"Absolutely not a single book on him."
Everyone looked up as Remus and Anna returned, with nothing in his or her hands. They joined them at the table with a small sigh.
"Not even one book?" Lily said, looking astounded.
Anna shook her head sadly.
"I bet there is," James said darkly, "It's just not where students are usually allowed to look in."
"What do you mean?"
He glanced over at a certain section of the library, which was locked up.
"The Restricted Section?!" Paige gasped, "We'll never be allowed to look in there!"
"Yeah, the only times students are allowed in is when they've got a signed note from a teacher. As if McGonagall or Laincoff is going to give us permission to look up information about Wyntone," Sirius scoffed.
The group sat in silence.
"I have an idea," James said suddenly.
"What is it?" Sirius asked eagerly.
James stopped, and fell silent.
"I can get the books, but I can't tell you how," he finally said truthfully, looking at the girls.
"Why not?" Anna frowned.
"Ask no questions and I'll tell no lies," both James and Sirius chorused.
The girls rolled their eyes.
"Alright, so Potter can go and look in the Restricted Section -- secretly. So what do we know about Wyntone already?" Lily lowered her voice to a whisper, and took out her notebook and a pen, that hadn't failed to fascinate James yet.
Everyone was silent again.
"He's evil?" James said unhelpfully.
"He's male," Sirius said with a smile.
"Idiots," Anna murmured.
Remus smiled.
Lily clicked her tongue impatiently, "What about the important stuff? Like where he lives and all that?"
"The Aurors don't even know, I doubt we would," James pointed out.
"Listen, why don't we just call it an afternoon?" Sirius said sensibly, "We know nothing and we aren't going to learn anything until we get books. Glorious books, books, books."
So they followed his suggestion, and left the library.
---
They were back at the library once again, and James proudly slipped a few heavy, hardcover, old books onto the table they were sitting at.
"Everything you'd need to know 'bout him," he said with pride in his voice, nodding at the books.
"Wow," Anna said, awed, "How'd you get th--?"
"Ah ah ah," James cut in, waving his index finger to and fro, "Remember; ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."
She rolled her eyes, but dragged a heavy book towards her and opened it cautiously.
"Wow," she whispered, flicking the pages, "So much stuff -- oh my gosh."
They peered cautiously at what she was looking at.
"Is that him?"
Lily gasped as well when she saw the creepy picture of the dark wizard, Wyntone. He was dressed in heavy, dark purple cloaks, and his face was twisted and gray.
"He looks scary," Paige whimpered.
"Man, he really should try some better shampoo," Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. They chuckled quietly.
The group took a textbook each or between two, and began to flick through it quietly. Once or twice they'd gasp out loud at more pictures they'd find.
"Err, you guys?"
It had been almost half an hour, and Remus was tentatively calling for his friends' attention.
"Yeah?"
"See here--"
He slid the book the other way around so that the others on the opposite side of the study table could read it.
"Where?" Lily wanted to know.
"There--" he pointed at a short paragraph, and she began to whisper it out loud.
" 'Wyntone is not just a wizard by himself, he has by means of support. His coven consists of his family; a wife and a set of twin daughters. It is strange how a dark wizard can love, but that just goes to show. His family supports him and helps him in every way possible. They are very powerful.' "
Lily looked up, her eyebrows raised.
"That doesn't sound too good."
The others grimaced in agreement.
"You know, shouldn't it be easy for the Aurors and stuff to just kill him?" Sirius said carelessly, flicking a rubber band across the table.
"Don't be stupid, Sirius," Paige said harshly, "Dark wizards don't reveal themselves unless they're very powerful. I'd say it's impossible to find him -- not to mention fight him."
Anna nodded, "She's right, Sirius. Dark wizards are extremely powerful. Wyntone is probably immune to most curses and jinxes. It's like he's grown so old and ancient that they simply rebound off him."
Sirius said nothing.
James glanced at his watch, "Almost dinner," he announced.
"Let's come here tomorrow," Remus said eagerly, snapping his book shut.
"Okay," they agreed.
They spent the next couple of days in the library, after classes and after doing their homework. And after Quidditch practices and detentions. But to their dismay, they found no more information about Wyntone. The ancient textbooks were hard to read and even more hard to understand. By the time the group had flicked through all of the books James had gotten them, they had found out absolutely nothing than what they had already known.
"Ahh, this sucks. All the book says are so... repetitive!" James complained, pushing a book away bad-temperedly.
"We're lucky to even find these," Anna said in a low voice.
"Listen... can we quit trying to be heroes?" Di said testily, "We shouldn't be looking up this stuff -- it's obvious we aren't going to catch Wyntone and defeat him. That's left to the Aurors, the Ministry and Dumbledore. What good can a couple of inexperienced twelve-year-olds do? So what if we've learn that he's got a family? -- Let's just call it quits. We're young and we better start acting it, 'cos spending hours in this library isn't my idea of fun."
Everyone looked at her, surprised at her outburst.
Lily was the first to recover, "You're right. Let's just forget about Wyntone and enjoy the rest of our childhood."
Di smiled at her warmly.
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---->A/N: Oooooh. --MSQ.