Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Twenty Three ll Bloody Bubblegum
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"Lily!"
Lily looked up when a clearly-distressed Scarlett came running down into the common-room.
"Lily!" Scarlett said again anxiously, "Something awful has happened, come up quick!"
Lily glanced at Paige and Anna, who both looked uncertain. The three shut their books and raced up to their dormitory.
Anna gasped and clasped her mouth when they entered their dorm. Lily's eyes widened and she took a step forward. Someone had raid their dormitory, but it was obvious who their target was.
Lily's four-poster was ripped open and her drawers were all hanging askew. Several bits of parchment laid on the floor. Her clothes spilled out of her closet.
The other girls' beds and possessions had been untouched.
"Oh Merlin, Lily, are you missing anything?" Paige asked breathlessly.
As if she was in a sort of daze, Lily took another step forward and knelt on the floor. Fortunately, anything worth something to her was locked up in her trunk, which the intruder hadn't been able to open.
The redhead gathered up the parchment slowly, looking around. The other three girls watched anxiously as she wandered over to her drawers and pored through them.
She frowned, "Nothing's missing..."
Then she went over to her jewellery box, which was open. It was only fake jewellery; plastic beaded bracelets and necklaces and such.
"Wait... the charm isn't here," Lily suddenly said, poring into her jewellery container.
Scarlett looked confused, but Anna and Paige's faces tightened. They all stayed silent as Lily searched more.
"It's definitely gone," she finally announced. With a sigh, she gathered up her clothes and wandered why the intruder hadn't taken anything else.
Scarlett went to look for Di to ask if she had noticed anyone strange come by their dormitory, while Anna and Paige stayed to talk to Lily.
"Why on earth would anyone take the charm?" Paige wanted to know, "Sure, it's pretty, but it's worth nothing. And to go trashing through all of your stuff? It's odd."
"I'll say," Anna agreed, helping Lily repair her four-poster curtains, "Are you sure you didn't drop it anywhere?"
Lily nodded, "Positive. I put it in my jewellery box. Then I suppose I forgot all about it."
"But still... who would want it?"
Lily shrugged. She was asking herself the same question.
---
When another day came that Remus was back and Di had left (another 'family emergency'), the group decided to go back to the library for one last shot at finding more information about Wyntone. He was clearly a fascinating subject.
They were poring through the same old textbooks, looking for new information. Meanwhile, James was very bored. He chewed on his gum loudly and popped it at random, then glanced around the library innocently.
"Will you stop doing that?" Lily hissed at him.
James smiled and shook his head.
It remained like this for fifteen minutes, when Remus suddenly gasped and almost toppled off his chair.
"Read this!" he whispered excitedly to the rest of them, shoving his heavy book forward.
In a very small box in the corner of the page was the paragraph:
'Because of the strong bond between Wyntone and his family, they are bound together magically and morally. They are able to feel physical pain that another family member feels. This also means that if one family member ceases to exist, the others will die with them.'
"Excellent!" Sirius said under his breath, "Bloody brilliant. One dies, they all die."
"The daughters are probably extremely vulnerable, so if they get killed by one of the Aurors, it'll also kill Wyntone. So basically, his invincibility doesn't exactly help," Remus explained to the others.
Meanwhile, Lily was scribbling all this down in her notebook. Anna was helping her by telling her things that she might've forgotten to jot down.
James had grown bored of his gum and had placed it secretly in Lily's hair. Now he sat there pretending to be very interested in what was happening.
Five minutes later, Remus signalled for them to look at his book.
"Why do you always get the book with all the information in it?" Anna grumbled, peering forward.
"You probably just don't look close enough -- but anyway, look what I found."
They all read the paragraph Remus was pointing at.
'The twin daughters and heir of Wyntone are no doubt still growing in power, which is why they are magically protected by Invincibility Charms. There are only two in the whole of the wizarding world.'
"What are Invincibility Charms?" Paige wanted to know at once.
"What do they do?"
"What does that mean?"
Everyone began to ask at once, and Remus held his hand up for silence.
"Quiet, you guys, or Madam Meynon will throw us out," he whispered, "The book doesn't elaborate, but I think it means you can't harm the two girls because they wear those charm-things."
"Which just makes us grow miserable again," Anna said, slumping down onto the table.
Lily was flicking through her notebook frantically, looking for a blank page to jot down more notes. She suddenly halted to a stop and flicked back a few more pages.
She came to a rest.
"Whatcha doing, Lily?" Paige asked her.
"I know what the Invincibility Charms are," Lily replied shortly. Then, without further ado, she tossed her notebook forward.
Invincibility Charms are extremely helpful and can be essential in extreme cases
are only two in the entire wizard world
owned by two girls
unfortunately these Charms are impossible to create
they are Non-Tradable Class F
Charms are the mark of evil
"They're the notes I had written down in History of Magic," Lily explained. Underneath the notes was a draft sketch of the charm itself.
"Lucky Lily pays attention in that class," Remus said, staring at the sketch.
"You know, that looks familiar," James, who had finally stopped being bored, said slowly.
"That's what I was thinking," Anna agreed, glancing around, "It looks like the charm Lily had found--"
She was interrupted by a loud snap, and they all jumped to see Sirius biting into a chocolate bar. He smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."
"Hey, give me some," Paige requested.
Anna tried to finish her sentence, but Madam Meynon had suddenly swooped down on them.
"What's this?! Chocolate! Out! Out all of you! OUT!" she hollered, making surrounding students leap out of their skin. She pointed at the doorway, "OUT!"
Frantically, they gathered up the books and ran for dear life, glaring at Sirius.
---
As they headed back to the common-room, Lily ran her hand through her hair to smooth it out. It was only then that she felt something extremely gross and sticky.
She frowned and tried to pull it out, and saw it came out onto her hands as she pulled it away.
"AHHH GUM!" she shrieked, trying to pull it out even more. It only made it worse as it sprawled all over her hair.
Lily shrieked again. James was laughing.
She immediately whirled around and jabbed him in the chest, "You did this, didn't you?" she hissed vehemently. Her eyes were shining with tears, something quite alarming to James.
"I'm--"
"You just don't know when to stop, do you?!" she yelled, releasing him and shoving him back, "I HATE YOU!"
She turned and fled up the stairs, sobbing a little.
"You really did it this time," Paige said crossly to James as Lily disappeared.
"What-- what did I do?" James managed to get out, bewildered.
"Look, girls love their hair and what they don't love is when immature prats shove gum in there."
Anna nodded indignantly, looking at James solemnly.
"You might want to go and apologise to her," Sirius told his best friend meekly.
James looked horrified, "Hell no. I'd rather jump off a cliff."
"I think you should get it over and done with," Remus agreed with Sirius, rounding on James.
Sirius smiled to know he had support. Feeling outnumbered, James left without saying a word. When he reached Lily's dormitory, he pressed onto the handle and walked in cautiously.
A book immediately flew at his head.
Due to his quick reflexes, he managed to dodge it.
"Lily?"
Another book.
"Go -- away."
"Lily--" James took a few more steps.
And a few more books.
"Look, I'm sorry--" James tried again, trying to approach Lily's bed.
"GET OUT! OUT!"
"You know you sound like Madam Meynon...?"
"You are really pushing it, Potter," Lily said angrily.
"Look, I came here to apologise," James said with a sigh, rumpling up the back of his hair.
Lily was tired of the stupid prick and his stupid pranks. The disgusting gum was still in her hair and she just knew she would never forgive him.
Never.
So she reached over for another book, but realised she had ran out. Picking up her alarm clock, she hurled it at him. It hit James squarely in the face, causing his nose to bleed.
"OW!" James yelped, clutching at his nose.
Lily stopped short and glanced at him. Then she sighed.
"Look, just leave me alone. I don't want to talk to anyone. And here's some tissues."
She threw a pack of tissues and fell back on her bed.
James resignedly left the dormitory, still holding his nose with one hand with the pack of tissues in the other.
"Ah, I see she outdone you," Paige said, trying not to giggle when he entered the common-room.
Sirius was staring at him, "What happened to you nose?!"
James glared at him.
"Sirius, I am never ever going to take your advice again."
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----> A/N: Ouchie, bloody noses are scary. But then, so is gum in hair. ((nods)) --MSQ.