SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1~*~ Ariel ~*~ 

~When the shadow seems too dark

~When the river seems too deep

~When the price seems too high

~When the mountain seems too steep

~Remember...

~One light could clear the night

~One pole could reach the base

~One coin could change the cost

~One person can set the pace

~So...

~When it seems like nothing's working

~When all your tears have been cried

~Dry your face and rest in peace

~Just knowing that you tried

I avoided everyone for a long while after that. I knew Bella and Hilary were distressed that I was ignoring them, especially since it must have seemed obvious something was wrong. Only James had the faintest idea why. He knew it had something to do with what had happened in Dumbledore's office, just not what. But, to my gratefulness, he didn't tell the others that I had been to see the Headmaster.

'Lily, for god's sakes! Tell me what's wrong!' Bella growled, blocking the exit from the dormitory. I avoided her eyes and remained silent. I felt pain everytime I looked at her. Everytime I saw the distant hurt in her eyes that had come with her father's death.

'Talk! Now! Stop shutting me out like this, OK? I'm sick of it! We're supposed to be your friends! Just talk to me! Please,' she begged, her voice dropping to a desperate whisper with the last word. Her olive eyes were slightly wet, but she was glaring defiantly at me. I chewed my lip.

'Please let me out,' I whispered, my voice hoarse from lack of speaking.

'Not until you speak to me.'

'I can't, Belle. Please. Just let me out.'

'You don't have to tell me what it is if you don't want to. But just stop blocking everyone out like this. Talk to us again.'

'It's too hard,' I said quietly, pushing past her.

I didn't feel human, that week or so. Just a moving shell of one, with no one inside. Empty, and numb. I spoke only when I had to, and kept to myself at all costs, wishing dearly that Firregaze would come back.

I was about two weeks into my vow of solitude when I was summoned to Dumbeldore's office. It was during a charms lesson, one in which Gray had taken to throwing paper airplanes at the back of my head, trying to get me to say something. Daniel Kirkpatrick had come in towards the middle of the lesson, explaining that the Headmaster wanted to see me. Eyes clouded with confusion, I followed him to Dumbledore's office. 

'Potter's worried about you, Evans,' KP sighed along the way. 'He wants you to come see him practise.'

Sighing, I turned to look at him.

'I do,' I told him quietly. 'Everyday.'

He left it at that.

When we reached the gargoyle, he muttered a password and it jumped aside.

'See you around, Evans. And I hope you cheer up. I don't know what's wrong, but Potter's sure concerned about you.'

Nodding dully, I stepped in and made my way through to the office. The door was already wide open.

Dumbledore was seated at his desk, fingers folded and eyes twinkling. In front of him sat a girl with her back to me. She had long, waist-length snow-white hair and was wearing pale blue robes and a muffler of grey fur.

'Lily. How have you been?'

'Good,' I answered as politely as I could.

'Please take a seat,' he said, gesturing to the chair next to the girl's. I timidly sat down, sneaking several glances at the girl next to me. She smiled at me, and I saw her face. She had blue eyes and pale skin.

'This is Ariel Couer. She has come to us from Beauxbatons and will spend the next three weeks here.'

I nodded. Beauxbatons was another school similar to Hogwarts, over near France.

'Hi,' I said.

'Bonjour.'

'I was wondering, Miss Evans, if you would be responsible for showing Miss Couer around?'

'Professor, I -'

'Lily, I have noticed how withdrawn you have been and I have become quite concerned. I believe this will be good for you. I will not accept "no" as an answer.'

'Yes, Professor.'

'Ariel, this is Lily Evans. She's a second year also, so you should get on well.'

'Merci,' Ariel replied.

'Er, Professor... does she speak English?' I asked uncertainly.

'Indeed,' Dumbledore said with amusement.

Ariel laughed.

'Oui, Lily. Sorry. I do know Eenglish, it is just deeficult... very tempting to slip back into speaking French.' 

'Oh, I can understand,' I said. 'I know a little French, I learnt it in primary school...'

'That's excellent. You can teach each other,' Dumbledore said cheerfully, clapping his hands together, eyes twinkling merrily. 'Lily, why don't you spend as much time as you like and show Ariel around? She will be staying with you in Gryffindor Tower, by the way. A bed should have been placed in your dormitory this morning.'

I was about to ask him just how he had managed to fit an extra bed into our already full dormitory, but over the past days I had learnt to keep my mouth shut and it was now a habit I was finding hard to break. I hadn't thought it would be possible, but I wasn't used to talking!

'Good day, Professor,' I sighed as we left. I pulled my hair behind my ears and turned to Ariel.

'Do you like your school?'

'Oui. It az a very cold climate, though. But ze uniform is nice and warm.'

'I like the colour,' I said conversationally.

'Oui. It is nice,' Ariel agreed.

'This is the Great Hall,' I told her, opening the door. 'We have all our meals in here. Sometimes we do other things, like dueling and that, but not very often.'

Suddenly, Mrs Norris came padding around the corner, mewing accusingly at us. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

'That's the caretaker's cat. His name's Filch and he's a real pain. Everybody hates him. I want to hit him sometimes. Seriously. Donnez-moi un bâton ainsi je peux aller battement la merde hors du Filch.' [Give me a stick so I can go beat the crap out of Filch]

Ariel laughed.

'Where did you learn zat?'

'Oh, at school one day this girl was annoying me while we were playing a game. So I asked my teacher how to say it, and she told me. So I went around saying "donnez-moi un bâton de softcrosse ainsi je peux aller battement la merde hors du Melanie", and it was really funny because she had no idea what I was saying,' I said, laughing. 

'I did somezing like zat in Eenglish. We like to find out funny phrases and use zem in front of ze uzzers who do not know Eenglish.'

'My best friend speaks Italian,' I said.

'Oh, oui. Italian.'

'This boy Gray, who I went out with, I think he knows French, too.'

'Do you 'ave a boyfriend?' Ariel asked.

'No, not at the moment.'

'Oh.'

'What about you?' I asked.

'No - I did, but we fell out very recently. I discovered he was only going out wiz me for a bet.'

'You're joking.'

'It is true,' she said sadly.

'That must have been awful.'

Ariel nodded.

'Quand vous réalisez quelqu'un non jamais inquiété de vous, vous commencez à vous demander si n'importe qui s'inquiète vraiment de vous du tout,' she laughed. [When you realise someone never cared about you, you begin to wonder if you really matter to anyone at all.]

'I remember that. It was one of the first phrases we learnt in French. What is it from?'

'Oui, it is often a popular phrase to be taught. It is a quote from a great French philosopher.'

'It's kind of sad,' I commented.

'Oui, but true. It is very true.'

'I guess.'

'Lily!' called a voice suddenly. Ariel and I both turned around. It was Bella.

'Hi,' I mumbled. 'This is Ariel. Ariel, this is my best friend Bella.'

Bella snorted when I said best friend, but said nothing.

'Bonjour,' Ariel said, extending her hand. Bella shook it.

'What did Dumbeldore want, or can't you talk about that, either?' she asked, turning to me. I knew she was extremely frustrated that I was shying away.

'Ariel is here for a few weeks. Dumbledore wants me to show her around.'

Bella nodded.

'So you're not coming to Transfiguration?'

I shook my head.

'I'll... I'll take notes for you, I guess.'

'Thank you,' I said gratefully. As she turned to walk away, I called her name softly. She twisted her head around.

'I'm sorry,' I said quietly. To my relief, she gave me a small smile.

'Talk tonight?'

I took a deep breath, then nodded. I couldn't go on like this.

'Bye,' I said.

'Bye.'

Ariel and I left the Great Hall to find the corridors filled with students.

'I guess class is over. They'll have another class, then it'll be lunch time, and we'll have to come back here, so we won't go too far at the moment. I'll show you the things on this floor, and we can look at the rest of the castle later.'

'OK,' Ariel nodded, gazing around.

I was about to show her to the girls bathroom when I saw James and Sirius out of the corner of my eye, heading in the opposite direction.

'Ariel, just wait here for a minute, OK?'

She nodded, and I strode quickly down the hall.

'James!' I called.

He didn't hear at first, so I called again. This time he turned around.

'Lily?'

I couldn't think of anything to say, so instead I just ran up and hugged him.

'I am so sorry about how I've been acting lately. But I wasn't ready to talk about it, and I swear I've been to every single one of your practices, I've just sat where you can't see me and I'll tell you everything if you want -'

James put a finger to my lips and put a stop to the flow of words tumbling from my mouth.

'I'm glad you're feeling... better. You don't need to apologise. I knew you needed space, so I tried to give it to you. Don't feel guilty, you can only control your emotions to a certain extent.'

'I'm so sorry,' I said one more time, stepping back. 'I should have told you straight away, but I was upset and wanted to block everyone out... I'm not sure I can tell you what it is, but I promise I won't ignore you again!'

'We'll talk at lunch, OK? I have to go to class,' James said, Sirius tugging on his arm like a little kid to his mother.

I nodded.

'Bye.'

'See you,' James said, waving, and giving me a reassuring smile. I felt so much better once I had gotten that off my chest.

I stood and watched James walking off down the hall, probably to Divination. After a moment I noticed Ariel had come to stand beside me.

'Who was zat?'

'Oh, my other best friend. James. He's a third year. You can meet him at lunch. Come on, and I'll show you the grand staircase...'

* * *

I hadn't been looking forward to lunch. I got a torn feeling inside everytime I thought about telling my friends why I had been pushing them away. So that's why I decided I wasn't going to tell them. I was going to stop ignoring them and attempt to let things get back to normal, but I could never tell them. Because I feared their reactions.

'Lily? Fleur-de-lys?' asked Ariel hesitantly. 'It is alright if I sit with you, isn't it?'

'Of course,' I said, sitting down at Gryffindor table. The Hall had only a few people in it, as most classes hadn't been released yet. 'The others will be here soon.'

She sat down next to me.

'So, do you have houses like us at your school? You know, like Gryffindor and all that?'

She shook her head.

'We 'ave separate buildings for girls and boys. But we 'ave meals and lessons togezzer still. Apart from zat we are just one body of students.'

I nodded.

It was about then that what must have been the second year Gryffindors's Transfiguration class came into the Hall, because Bella and Hilary filtered in amongst others, whose faces I wasn't paying attention to. Taking a deep breath, I waved them over. Hilary shot a curious glance at Bella, but they both come over. They sat opposite Ariel and I.

'Hi,' Bella said cheerfully, as if everything was normal.

'Hello. Hilary, this is Ariel. She's from Beauxbatons.'

'Hi,' Hilary said, her eyes continually darting to mine.

'Bonjour. 'Ello,' Ariel replied, smiling at Hilary.

'Does this mean you're going to tell us what the hell has been wrong lately?' Hilary asked me, and Bella elbowed her.

'Don't worry, Lily. Leave it until you're ready.'

Hilary shot me a dark look before helping herself to some food.

I sighed. She was mad at me.

'Hey Lily,' said someone, draping an arm around my shoulders.

'Hey James,' I replied. 'Oh, by the way, this is Ariel. Ariel, this is James.'

'Are you new?' James asked.

I shook my head.

'From Beauxbatons.'

'Hi,' he said. She smiled in return.

James put his arms around the back of my chair and joined them at the front, forming a loop around my neck.

'Your friend's pretty hot,' he murmured in my ear.

I rolled my eyes.

'Keep it in your pants, James,' I muttered back.

He gave a small laugh.

'It's good to have the old Lily back,' he said quietly, before removing his arms and straightening up.

'It's good to be back.'

I smiled to myself, and looked at James.

'Hey, Ariel. James thinks you're hot,' I said, rather loudly. I noticed Paige shoot me a glare and ignored it. James scowled and Ariel laughed.

'Ooh, Jamsie,' Sirius said, narrowing his eyes. 'This is not good when you have a girlfriend.'

'Like you don't check out girls,' James shot back.

This seemed to put Sirius is his place, because he went back to eating his lunch.

'This doesn't mean I have to stop teasing you, I hope you realise.'

'Oh, come off it, Lily. We all know you check out hot girls too,' James teased. Even Hilary snorted.

Despite having been extremely reserved for over a fortnight, I was surprisingly finding it very easy to draw myself out of the little cocoon I had settled into.

'Jamsie! I have eyes only for you!' I insisted.

'Really?'

'But of course.'

'Oh. So that thing in the broom closet back there... that actually meant something to you?'

I couldn't hello myself there. I cracked up.

'Sssh, Jamsie. It's a secret,' I said when I recovered.

'Oh. OK,' he said, winking.

It was then I realised how much my friends really meant to me. How much I had missed this.

'It's OK. If you had the heart to forgive me, I guess I have to forgive you,' I grinned, and blew him a kiss.

Man, it felt great to be back. And it felt great to have friends.

~~~~~~~~AUTHOR NOTE~~~~~~~~~~

OK I'm in a really bad mood. Dunno why. Hey, guess what? Don't ask me why, but I decided to tell my sports teacher that I couldn't do sport coz I'd sprained my eyebrow to see what he said and he actually found it funny. Hahahaha. OK now I'm just in a silly mood. Oh well. Better than mad. Breathe. Breathe.

Right. OK, I needed to say some stuff to people. Let me check my reviews. Hang on!

I'm good. OK. Here we go.

I shouldn't actually be telling you this, but the other two heirs are... nope. Sorry. Can't tell you. Hehehe I'm evil!

AND - I KNOW Sirius was a pure blood, but I started this story long before OotP and I'm not going to change it. I also know that James's parents were nice and it was Sirius's that weren't, but again, I didn't know this before. And you guys might have forgotten, but I think you should go back and look at chapter one of part one. It tells you all about her being related to Tom Riddle there.

BTW, Amelia Bedelia, you really need to update Light goddamn it! Argh! I got really annoyed coz the author just abandoned this story i was reading so I got really mad. Gimme more!

Breathe, Sarah. Breathe. Yes. I'm calm now.

Buh-byes!

~SezZie~

PS: Guess what? Out of my whole time writing this story, I got my first flame! And guess wot? I DON'T CARE! In fact, I found it mildly amusing. So go ahead and flame me if you want. NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO READ THIS STORY. If it is such a stupid story, why did you bother to go through and read the whole thing? I mean, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but seriously. That flame left me a little miffed. Oh and by the way, I do quote "SezZie... what kind of person calls themselves that anyway" YOU DON'T GET TO CHOOSE YOUR OWN NAME, DO YOU? AND IF MY NAME HAPPENS TO BE SARAH AND MY FRIENDS HAPPEN TO CALL ME SEZZIE AND I HAPPEN TO LIKE THAT NAME THEN I THINK THERE IS NOTHING AGAINST ME USING IT. OK I'm good now. :D