Lily Chapter 23: Amelia, a harry potter fanfic

Lily

Chapter 23

The year ended smoothly, not going out with a bang or anything, but just slowly extinguishing itself like a candle deprived of oxygen. Slytherin won the Quidditch and House cups (again) and Severus Snape came over to brag (again). Nothing monumental happened, except for the fact that Sirius and James were talking to her again, and she was much happier for it. She was going back to James's house for the summer, except there would be a slightly
heavier magical guard around the house in light of the previous summer's events (and I don't mean the one that never happened).

The summer was just about as uneventful as the end of the year. James and Lily laughed at Mr. Potter's attempts to be the muggle standard of "Cool." Lily got some landing lessons, but James was careful never to leave her outside alone on a broom again.

One mid-June day, a large, light brown owl flew in the window carrying a good-sized package. There was no return address, so both of them were reluctant to open it. James's curiosity, however, got the best of him after about five minutes. He ripped open the box and found several Dungbombs and a note:

Dear James and Lily,

Hi! How are your summer holidays? Behaving, I hope, James? I was wondering if you two lovebirds would like to visit my house around the end of July. Write back soon!

Toodle Pip,
Sirius

This note caused a little bit of Lily smacking James around the head, but that stopped quickly as they realized what this meant. Sirius was obviously getting over the whole thing. At least he sent Dungbombs, and Mr. Potter found his kitchen veritably contaminated with them for about a week afterwards. As for Sirius's offer, they were both very eager to take him up on it, since the house was getting slightly boring, and James wouldn't go near the room at the end of the upstairs hall.

Lily only hesitated for an instant, dreading the flight over.

When they arrived there (Lily's complexion turning a bit green), Sirius greeted them by setting off a number of Filibuster Fireworks from the upstairs window of his house. And speaking of his house...

Sirius's mom was rather obsessed over restoring everything old, and that included her house. It was a huge relic, vines creeping up the sides and whitewash chipping off of a picket fence in the front.

Sirius's little sister Amelia kept popping up wherever Lily and James went, casting them sly glances. Obviously Sirius had told her an exaggerated
version of the thing that never happened. However, she came in very useful in her eagerness to give them the "grand tour" of the house.

"Thirius told me all about you and Lily, Jaaameth." She nudged him with a little pudgy elbow and gave him the exact same smile that Gilderoy had given him on the Hogwarts Express. "And I wath thinking that maybe you'd like to hear the legend of our houthe. It'th really romantic to hear around a campfire, and Lily'll cuddle up clothe to you, and..."

"SIRIUS!" James bellowed.

Lily, while ticked off at Sirius for telling Amelia (not to mention at James for telling Sirius), thought that the little nuisance was sort of sweet. "I'm sure he'd love that, Amelia, but I'm more interested in the story."

She gave Lily an uneven smile, due to the fact that she had just lost her two front teeth. "The thtory's neat, too. Come on!" She took Lily's hand in hers and led her up to the attic. James followed with Sirius's arm in a tight grip.

Amelia's short black hair was done up in pigtails, giving her a distinctly innocent look that was slightly betrayed by her eyes, which were exactly the same as Sirius's, mischievous and bright, except for the fact that Amelia wore wire-framed glasses. It was sort of wierd, Lily thought, to imagine those eyes that had looked so hollow such a short time ago, on this bundle of energy. When they reached the attic, Amelia released Lily's hand and walked (or bounced) over to the wood-paneled wall. "Thith ith it." She pried a board loose and revealed a little hiding place, kind of like a miniature cave. Inside was a diary.

It was an ordinary diary, a thin book with a shabby-looking black cover. Nothing was really special about it, or the hiding place. "Well?" Lily
prompted gently. "What's the story?"

A mischevious grin brought out Amelia's pinpoint dimple. She didn't answer Lily, but she jogged back down to her room and opened her desk. The little puffy hands produced a quill and blue ink. "Thith ith the cool part." Amelia opened the diary to the first page. In black ink was already written, "T.M. Riddle." The name struck some sort of chord in Lily, as though she had heard it somewhere before and was supposed to be careful of it.

"Er, Amelia..." She took the diary and gently closed it. "I don't think we should read this diary. You never know the secrets the owner may have written in it."

Amelia shook her head. "No, it'th empty."

"What?" James was confused. "Why is it so important if it's empty?"

Sirius's eyes twinkled just like Amelia's. "Just watch."

Lily gave the diary back to Amelia, who haughtily re-opened it. She dipped the quill in the ink and poised it above the page, ready to write. "Tho, Liy, what do you want me to write?"

"Um...just write...hi!"

"O.k." Her pudgy elbow moved across the desk as she wrote in the diary. Then she motioned frantically, still looking down. "Come here, come here! It'th happening, it'th happening!"

Lily and James walked over to the desk and looked over Amelia's shoulder. On the page was written, "Hello. My name is Tom Riddle."

"I thought you said you were going to write 'hi,'" said Lily.

"I did! The book anthwered me!"

James caught Lily's eye and winked behind Amelia's back. "Wow. That's very interesting, Amelia."

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Lily with false enthusiasm. "This is a very magical object!"

Something in their tones made it obvious to Amelia that they were lying. "You don't believe me." She sounded honestly offended that they didn't
think she was telling the truth. "You really don't believe me. Fine." She closed up the book and went to put it back. "Nobody does."

Lily caught her by her chubby little wrist as she left. "Wait. I really do believe you." She knew what it was like to not have someone think you're telling the truth, but thinking of the event that brought it about made a lump in her throat. "Let's see that again."

Amelia smiled again and took the quill out again. She wrote, this time, where Lily and James could see her. "Hi, Mr. Riddle."

The ink was sucked into the page like invisible ink. A second later, words appeared in their place. "Hello. What's your name?"

James took a step backwards. "Whoa."

"Whoa" pretty much summed up Lily's thoughts, but she was too interested in seeing more to comment. Amelia wrote her name in the diary. "Amelia."

The ink once again disappeared, then reappeared. "I like your name, Amelia. How did you come across my diary?"

Lily was getting a growing sense of forboding as she tried to remember where she had heard the name "Tom Riddle" before. As Amelia was writing, "I found it in my attic," Lily snatched the diary out of her hands. "Amelia, I think we should show this to your mother."

"Why?"

"I think..." how do you tell an eight year old that there was something dangerous about an innocent-looking diary that talks back? "I think it might be broken."

"Oh. Do you really think tho?"

"Yes. Yes, and I'll see if I can fix it." She felt like a rat, telling a lie to the sweet little girl, but it might turn out for the better.

"All right."

That night, Lily sat up in bed with a bedside lamp on, turning the diary over and over in her hands. Where had she heard that name before? "Tom Riddle...Tom Riddle..." She whispered. It certainly was a riddle, she thought to herself. There was only one way, regretably, to find out. She took up a quill and wrote. "Hello. My name is Lily." She was about to write her last name, but thought better of it and let the ink soak in. The response came:

"Hello, Lily. Did you get my diary from Amelia?"

"Yes."

"Where did she find it?"

"Why should I tell you?"

"I'm laughing right now. It's refreshing to find someone with spirit."

A chill ran down her spine thinking about Tom Riddle laughing, even though she was sure she had never heard him laugh before. "Oh."

"I mean it, Lily, where did she find it?"

She kept her quill poised above the page for a second, wondering if she should tell. "In a bookstore," she lied.

"Oh. Where are you right now?"

What could be the harm in telling him? "43 Tansboro Road."

No words came back. Lily wrote again. "Hello?"

The words were slow in coming, but there was a response. "Would you like to see one of my...entries?"

"All right."

"This entry is about the future."

"What do you mean, 'the future?'"

"The future where our fates cross."

The pages flew by as though blown by a wind, and it stopped on "October 31, 1981." The square underneath the date looked like a television screen, so Lily looked inside. Before she knew it, she was standing in a small room. Fire burned all around the house she was now in, and a tall, pale figure in a dark cloak burst into the room, red eyes aflame. He held a wand before him, and laughed. He was laughing like Peter had in her vision! That high, cruel, icy laugh...

He moved across the room, towards a person - no, two people - on the other side. There was a woman, probably thirty years old, with red hair and bright green eyes, clutching a tiny black-haired baby. The woman looked oddly familiar to her, but only became an object of her pity when she screamed and began begging.

"Not Harry, Not Harry! Please - I'll do anything-"

"Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!"

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"

"Stand aside, you silly girl...stand aside now!"

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead! Not Harry! Please, have mercy...have mercy..."

He raised his wand to her and yelled, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" There was a flash of green light and the sound of wings, and Lily screamed as the woman's eyes suddenly looked exactly like Chantel's had. She screamed even louder, realizing who the woman was. It was her! She was looking at herself, dying! She saw her life end, and why; for that little black-haired baby boy. He reminded her of someone, but she didn't remember who...

Lily ran forward and tried to pick the baby up and out of the merciless reaches of the wizard she now knew to be Voldemort. When her hands went right through him, she just stood in front of the baby and tried to offer one last defense to him, a few more seconds to live. But Voldemort ignored her and just shouted again, "Avada Kedavra!" The baby went limp behind her, dead.

Somehow, seeing that baby die seemed to rip her heart in two, and she broke down crying. Through the tears, she remembered what Tom Riddle had said to her: "The future where our fates cross..." Then, with a gasp, she remembered what Chantel had told her. Tom Riddle was the name Voldemort went by...before he turned evil!

The next moment, she was laying in the bed at Sirius's house, unable to know whether it was just a dream.