Lily Chapter 24: The Diary, a harry potter fanfic

Lily

Chapter 24

Quickly, Lily got to her feet and walked across the room. Shouting a rather *cough* unsavory word after it, she threw it out the window. She didn't bother to see where it landed, just dove back into bed and lay there, shivering.

The next morning, Sirius's mom went to work at her jewelry store ("Black's Baubles") and they had to make their own breakfast. Amelia ushered them all out of the kitchen, saying that she would make a "Deliciouth thereal catherole" for them. Despite the jitters experienced by imagining what a cereal casserole was, they managed to have a serious conversation.

"Guys, I figured out what was up with the diary," said Lily under her breath.

"Hang on, Lily...time me, James." Sirius was balancing a spoon on his nose.

James watched the clock as Sirius waltzed around the room, trying to get the right balance. "No, I mean it, guys, this is serious!" Lily said angrily.

He dropped the spoon, caught it deftly, and made an elegant bow. "In the flesh, milady."

Lily fell into the pillows on the couch in frustration. Speaking into the pillows, she tried to find words that wouldn't be misunderstood. "What I mean is that I'm not joking around this time. Something is weird about that diary!"

"Well, where is it?" James asked.

Lily sat up and looked down at her hands. "I'm not sure."

Sirius dropped the spoon again. "What do you mean, 'you're not sure?'"

"Er..." She avoided saying the actual reason. What she did say, however, was, "Well, I wrote in the diary and it wrote back to me, and then it asked where I was right now."

"Yeees?" Sirius had abandoned the spoon and was now more interested in Lily's story.

"I told him the address. He was all quiet for a moment or two, then he asked if I'd like to see one of his 'entries...' and he showed me something about the future."

She seemed to not want to say anything else about it, but the irrepressible Sirius kept going. "Well, what was it? Fame? Fortune? Love?" he shot a glance over in James's direction, which, luckily for Sirius, James didn't see.

Lily took a deep breath and continued. "There was a woman. She was holding a little baby, a baby with black hair, and he looked sort of familiar, but I couldn't place him. She had red hair and green eyes. She was running from something, that's all I could tell for a second or two, but then...Voldemort walked in." She re-lived the details in her head, feeling an icy fear crawl down her spine. "His eyes were glowing all red, like a fire. He told her to move
out of the way, to stand aside, but she just kept screaming 'Not Harry!' and wouldn't get out of his way. She wouldn't let that baby go. He just shouted something at her, and there was a lot of green light, and she died. Right there, she died!"

James had made the connection when Lily described the woman, and sat down rather hard in a chair, sending up a small cloud of dust. "Whoa."

"That's not the worst! He just kicked her aside and went for the baby, did the exact same thing, and the baby died, and he was just laughing! Then I was back in bed and I don't know whether it was a dream or not!"

"What happened to the diary?" Sirius seemed rather stuck.

James stood up and grabbed Sirius by the shoulders, shaking the information into him. "Don't you get it? That was her! The woman was Lily, only older! And the baby was her son! How did you not get that?"

Sirius's disposition immediately changed. He did an exact imitation of James, plopping down in a chair and saying "Whoa."

Lily shook her head. "No, guys, listen. That could have all been a dream, a bad dream, because I've been sort of paranoid lately." Sirius made a little sound in his throat that probably was meant as 'you're not the only one.' Lily continued. "That's not the point. I remember where I heard that name before. Cha- someone told me that Tom Riddle was Voldemort's given name."

James sat down again, and this time, they both said, "Whoa."

"Is that all you can say?" Lily teased.

"No, Lily." James got up and motioned for Sirius to come with him. "I can say this, too: Sirius, come on upstairs."

A rather bemused-looking Sirius followed James until the bottom of the stairs, then looked back at Lily and whispered, "Call the men in the white jackets."

When James got upstairs, he made sure that they were out of earshot of Lily, then he turned to Sirius. "Sirius, do you remember how she described the baby? Her son?"

"No, I was waiting for her to get to the part where she lost the diary. Did she ever say?"

James growled in frustration. "She SAID that he had black hair! And reminded her of someone she knew!"

"So?"

"So? Are you off your rocker? WE have black hair!" Sirius didn't say anything, so James kept talking, hoping to jar his thought process. "Hello? And she knows us?"

"Ooooh..." Sirius suddenly understood. Then he looked slyly at James. "Well...I'll never...but of course, if you-"

"One more word, and I swear..." He clenched a fist at his side. "Look, there is nothing between me and Lily! You got it?"

"Fine, fine, fine. I won't say another word, won't cast you another sideways glance, won't imply anything else. In all due respect, though...you don't expect me to...do you?" He looked fairly frightened. "Because I don't really think I'll ever...you know, like like anyone...like Chantel."

It obviously was tough for Sirius to crawl out of his funny, tough exterior and bare his soul like this, because he turned around and walked back down the stairs at this. James was suddenly surprised at himself. He knew that Sirius didn't feel like that about Lily, and he knew that there was nothing between himself and Lily, so why had he brought it up at all? He shook his head, clearing his mind of it. Probably just confused, looking for some logical
connection. It was probably only a dream, after all. And so, he followed Sirius downstairs.

The rest of the week passed by with nothing so monumental as the finding of the diary, although there was much shrieking on Amelia's part when she realized that Lily had thrown it out the window. Amelia decided to give the offendor the 'silent treatment,' so the house was quieter (much to Sirius's delight).

When Lily and James returned to the Potters' house, Mr. Potter had a question for Lily. "Do you remember last year on the day I got called off to the Ministry on a false alarm?"

"It never happened!" She said quickly.

"What?"

"Oh..." she realized that wasn't what he was talking about. "Never mind. Yes, I remember."

"Well, you said that Lord Voldemort tried to kill you. Do you have any idea why he didn't?"

Lily dug through her memory, trying to remember even the faintest detail from what had happened then. She had been only half-conscious for most of the ordeal from lack of oxygen, but she still tried to figure it out. "He came up behind me, pressed his wand against my throat. He blocked me from moving away, and then it all started to go black, but I remember!" She brightened up suddenly. "I remember now, he said something about how I only had half the magic, and then I guess I was totally unconcious. Sorry."

Mr. Potter was tapping the counter pensively. "That's all right. Let's see...Why do you think he was after you in the first place?"

"A long time ago, in my first year, he said that there was a lot of power coming from me. He wanted me on his side, wanted me to be a dark wizard, but I said no, and-"

"Ah-ha!" Mr. Potter had started pacing back and forth, looking very excited. "That's it! He is afraid that you'll overthrow him in the future, or at least he WAS afraid. Then, he realized that you only had HALF the magic that would have been necessary to get rid of him!"

Lily stood up, too, eyes wide open with excitement. "And in that diary entry, he didn't want to kill me, but he had to, to get to my son!"

Mr. Potter stopped pacing and turned to Lily, looking very worried. "What do you mean?"

She had to relate the whole 'entry' that Riddle had played out for her, and Mr. Potter's expression became graver and graver, even though Lily told him repeatedly that it was probably only a dream. "Lily, thank you for telling me this. True, it's a terrible prediction, but it still helps us out a lot. This tells us that your magic has to combine with another magic to create that son...the magic in him is obviously powerful enough to defeat Voldemort!"

James spoke up. "But he killed the baby in the diary, remember?"

He waved his hand like it was of no importance. "Divination, that's all it is. Probably missed something in predicting it. For all we know, that's a dream. And I'd advise you both to think of it as just that, a dream, all right?"

They both nodded their heads, but Mr. Potter knew that they really thought of it as truth. He sighed and shook his head sadly. "I never thought I'd have to do this, but it's the only way to make sure...Obliviate!" And instantly, neither of them remembered anything about the 'prediction.'

It was September 1st, 1963, and they were boarding the Hogwarts Express. Platform 9 3/4 seemed even more crowded than usual, since they got there a little late. They met up with Sirius and Remus on the train as it departed and Mr. Potter waved a "Peace" sign at them from the platform. Sirius looked across at Lily and asked, "Any new thoughts on that diary?"

"Huh? What diary?"

Sirius had told Remus about it, and they looked confusedly at each other. "You know, that diary that Amelia gave to you? Riddle's diary?"

"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Do you know what they mean, James?"

James shook his head, and Sirius, though confused, shrugged. "All right. No diary."

A pale fourth-year with silvery-blonde hair and cold gray eyes walked in, holding a little black book. "Oh, I'm sorry for intruding." He sounded like he couldn't care less. "I'm just looking for an empty compartment."

Sirius leaped up and pointed. "That's it! That's the diary!"

The boy stared coldly at Sirius and said, "If it IS a diary, it's none of your business."

Sirius rolled his eyes and sat back down. "Fine. Whatever."

The boy left, slinking out as slimily as he had come in. Sirius made a disgusted face. "Lucius Malfoy. Prat if there ever was one. He lives next door, you know, but he's always acted as if our backyard is his own. Mum's always chasing his dog off with a broom."

This lightened the mood a bit, making them all laugh. "Well, don't worry about him, he's in Slytherin and hangs around with Severus Snape." Remus made a face. "Birds of a feather..."

Peter came into the compartment, and Lily again found herself unable to show the utter revulsion she felt at his presence. The train chugged along, its iron exterior speaking nothing of the secrets being carried inside.