© Ariana Veelagrace and Clara Maplewood, year 2000-2001
A/N: The first line of the second paragraph must
be credited to the author of Kissing Doorknobs. Thank you!
Disclaimer: Sorry that I've never had one. Chrissy and
Chantel belong to me, but everyone else belongs to the oh-so-famous J.K.
Rowling. Hey, she gets paid for thinking up these characters, so why can't we
get paid for thinking up our own little characters? Just kidding, of course, I don't want to be
pinned with the "rebel" reputation.
Lily
Chapter 7
Chrissy and Chantel came down the dormitory
stairs, tousle-haired and sleepy-eyed. Chrissy was looking disgruntled, rubbing
her ear and shooting angry glances at Chantel. Both stopped in their tracks
when they saw Lily's tear-streaked face staring at them from the armchair.
Immediately, they sat themselves on either side of her. "Lily...what
happened?"
When sympathy and kindness are put near sadness like that, it's like throwing
oxygen on a flame. Lily burst out crying yet again and handed the letter over
to her friends before saying tearfully, "I've never even heard of
him!"
Even just scanning the letter gave Chantel enough information to know what was
going on. Further inspection painted a look of horror on her face, once she saw
the name. "Voldemort? Oh, Lily...I'm sorry." She hugged her friend
and brushed away a few tears that threatened to fall. "He's really, really
bad. He killed my uncle...I'm really sorry!"
"Why are you sorry? It's not your fault!" Lily sobbed.
"No...you don't understand, Lily.
Voldemort-" She stopped, opening her mouth a few times and trying to find
the words to say this. "is...my father. As soon
as he married my mother, it went seriously wrong, and there were a lot of
complications, and then I was sort of the clincher. He left, and the next we
knew of him, he and a group of people he had gathered had killed my uncle.
So...I'm sorry."
"But why didn't you get sorted into Slytherin?"
"It said that I should go into Slytherin, but I begged and pleaded with
that hat, so it plunked me down here...thank goodness," she added.
Lily had been shocked out of tears by this new news. Chrissy, through sleepy
eyes, was doing her best to look awake.
She actually spoke. "Uh...wow. Might have been a good idea to tell
us beforehand, Chantel."
"I know, but you would have thought I was as evil as he is! I even look
like the rotter! I've got this dark hair, and these
eyes...well, he DID have green eyes, but they were red when he murdered my
uncle."
"Um...wow." Chrissy wasn't feeling verbal that morning.
There was a stunned silence in the room, but the topic had to be abandoned as
other Gryffindors leaked into the common room bit by bit. "We'll talk
later," murmured Chantel.
Lily sat and watched everyone come in and go out. She was oblivious to it all,
even when the four boys walked by and said hi to her, she waved numbly back.
Everyone recognized something wrong, but nobody cared enough to ask just what.
Or perhaps, she thought, it was that they cared too much to ask. If you see a
puddle in the middle of a flower garden, you might pass it by, for it will dry
up in time. But if you go and try to bail it out, you'll disturb the waters and
make it worse before making it better. (A/N- This analogy was made up by Clara
Maplewood)
Lily thought she fell asleep, but mostly just sat there, not caring what she
missed. She didn't take out any of her schoolbooks for some pre-term studying,
she didn't attempt to make conversation with anyone, and she didn't care. She was numb to the world, and that was how
she liked it. Maybe blocking the good emotions would block the bad ones, too.
It was after lunch time that someone other than Chantel and Chrissy actually
talked to her. She heard a voice say "Lily? What's going on?" She turned slowly to
face the voice and found herself looking into the same eyes she had just before
she was Sorted: the concerned eyes of Remus Lupin.
"You haven't talked to anyone or done anything all day."
"Oh...um...it's just..." She drew a shaky breath, fighting the urge
to break into tears. "No-hu-huthiiiing!"
It didn't work. Before she knew it, she was sobbing on Remus's shoulder, just
thankful for the outlet of sadness. "I got a letter from the Ministry of
Magic and my parents are dead and Voldemort killed them!" She gasped out
the simple reason between gasps for air. Everyone in the common room, even if
they were in conversations with other people, kept shooting worried glances
over in her direction.
"O.k...o.k..."
Remus was obviously a little unsettled by having Lily break down like this on
his shoulder, but still understood what she was going through. "That's
horrible." He gingerly patted her back; he didn't want the whole of
Gryffindor House to think he was hugging her or anything and sent an S.O.S in a
look to James and Sirius. They came over and tried to calm Lily down.
Sirius nudged James and whispered out of the side of his mouth. "What are
we supposed to do?"
James whispered back. "I don't know...it's probably just a girl thing...she'll
be over it in a while."
Lily stopped crying abruptly, took her head off Remus's shoulder, and slapped
James smartly across the face.
"Ow!"
yelled James, staggering backwards and clutching his cheek. Lily had gone back
to crying.
"What's wrong?" said Sirius. "Who turned on the
waterworks?"
"Sirius! Her parents died!" said Remus
indignantly.
"Oh...God, I'm sorry. How did it happen?"
Remus spoke one word that seemed to send an electric charge through Sirius's
body. "Voldemort."
"I've heard of that one. They say he's even worse than Grindelwald
was." he said gravely. "Say he's even got a few followers, called
Death Destroyers or something like that. Don't ask me why they chose that name,
since they've only caused death as far as I know. They've even got this sign
they fire up in the air whenever they kill anyone; a green skull with a snake
for a tongue..." he shivered, as did Lily.
Lily was picturing the scene. Her mother, probably sweeping or doing the dishes
or something, then her father listening to the radio for his business reports,
or reading the newspaper, then a man coming in with green- no, red, eyes and
black hair and Death Destroyers or whatever behind him. How did they die,
exactly? This not knowing was terrible! All she could imagine were two dead
bodies and two green skulls hovering over her house, with the snakes hissing
mockingly...
"What's up?" Chantel's voice snapped her
back to reality. "What haaaa...oh,
hi!" She was staring straight at Sirius. "I don't think we've met,
my name's...um...um...I'll have it in a sec..."
Sirius was looking at Chantel rather oddly, too, though Lily wasn't sure
whether it was affection or worry.
"I'm S...Sih...I know it begins with an
s..."
James rolled his eyes. "All right, one has some little
girl who slapped me across the face sobbing on his shoulder, and one has just
checked out of Hotel Sanity, and one is up in the dormitory, snoring. Am I the
only one who still has a brain? Ow!" Lily had
smacked his other cheek. "God, you've got a good arm there. Ever think
about being a Beater?"
"Only if you're the Bludger!" Shrieked Lily.
"What IS your problem?"
"I think my problem just hit me twice and is leaking like a faucet,"
said James.
"Stop it!" She yelled, even shriller than before. She ran up to the
dormitory, still crying.
James sat down, exhausted. "Girls!"