© Ariana Veelagrace and Clara Maplewood

Lily

Chapter 30



A/N: Hey, the big 3-0! We should have some kind of party! *glances at Ariana* No? Okay.

*gasps* A cliffhanger! maybe I should just leave this one blank, to tease you... muahahahahahahaha! *Ariana drags the keyboard away from Clara* I'm ever so sorry about her. This is NOT blank, don't worry. Enjoy!


James skidded, on his knees, to the space where Lily had sunk into the ice, not even leaving a mark. "Lily! I'm coming! Lily!" He shouted frantically as he neared the spot.

Peter was running to the same location with a look of feigned worry on his face. "I'll help!"

James didn't even stop to wait for Peter; he just threw himself flat and stared down through the ice. The fluid swirling of her red hair as she sank limply through the water was all he could see. He took off a skate with fumbling fingers and started hacking at the still-thick ice, with no thought to the strange nature of the situation. There was no crack in the ice, even though there was no doubt that Lily had fallen through it. The skates did little against the frozen stubbornness, and James dragged himself to his feet.

Peter was standing right there. James grabbed him by the coat collar and screamed into his face, "Get help! Get Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey, get someone!"

Peter ran back to the school.



Lily's dim senses roused momentarily when she hit the sandy bottom of the lake. There was no air left in her lungs, which burned with an icy fire. Her eyes were closed, so she didn't see what it was that pressed a scaly hand to her chest, checking for a heartbeat.  A deep, rolling voice spoke. "She is alive."

The scaly hands pressed again to her chest, and air somehow filled her lungs. Her eyes re-opened, and she found it possible to breathe again. She could hear, and feel...the cold!  It was so absolutely cold! But the cold wasn't what shocked her so much. Two mermen hovered by her, one holding a large silver trident. The other's trident was laid down on the lake bottom. That was the one who had given her the ability to breathe underwater.

The one with a trident said, "Good. Now she can get back above. Come on!"

The other one shook his finned head. "She can't swim that far."

"She got down here, didn't she?"

"That's different!" He grabbed Lily by the arm like a doll and swam up towards the ice, where she could make out the figure of James, looking intently down into the frozen lake.  Lily suddenly realized that, just as James couldn't break through the ice from up above, she couldn't break through from below.

When the merman, still holding her by the arm, reached the surface, Lily pounded on the ice to get James's attention. His eyes widened with relief. She tried to sign "Melting Charm" to him, but he just wasn't getting it. She hadn't brought her wand outside; she didn't think she would have needed it this badly. Finally, a combination of being frustrated and the numbing cold caused Lily to hang, practically limp, in the merman's grasp.

James pounded on the ice in frustration. There was no way to break through! And even if there was some sort of spell, he was terrible at Charms and would never be able to work it! He stood up and just looked down at Lily, feeling incredibly hopeless.

"Move over!" A tall, bossy-looking fourth year girl shoved him out of the way. She threw her shoulder-length brown hair over her shoulder, looking down at the ice. "Whoa, she's really stuck down there, isn't she?"

Rubbing his behind, James glared at her. "You really should take this stuff a little more seriously, Juno."

"Well, if you were taking it seriously enough, you'd have remembered something Eurydice remembered as soon as that girl went through the ice."

Another fourth-year girl, with a quieter air about her and very light blonde hair, made her slow way to where Juno and James were standing. Juno stepped respectfully aside, and Eurydice pointed her wand at the spot, concentrated all her energy, and spoke two words: "Incendio Treuso!" Green flames shot out of her wand, and it melted a hole in the ice just large enough for Lily to be handed up through it.

Before the merman could give her the boost to get her onto solid ground, Lily saw a small black bracelet drifting away. "Wait!" she cried, reaching out a hand and just catching it on her finger.

James dragged her out of the ice. "Are you okay? How did you get back up here? Oh...gosh..." He turned rather pale as the merman poked his head up through the hole and waved a good-bye to Lily. "Never mind." James took off his jacket and gave it to the shivering Lily. He, Eurydice, and Juno led her back to the school as he muttered to himself, "What took Peter so long?"




In the hospital wing, Lily was plopped down on a bed, rolled in several warm blankets, and given a mug of steaming hot cocoa by Madame Pomfrey. James still had no idea what had happened to Peter, so he just assumed that the slightly scatterbrained boy had gotten lost.  For now, he was content to wring Eurydice by the hand and babble intense thanks to her and Juno.

"No prob, James. Um..." Juno slowly pried James's hand off of Eurydice's, since the latter's hand had begun to turn rather purple. "Ok...we've got to go, right?"

"Yes. Of course. All right, I've...I've got to go, too..." James walked distractedly across the infirmary to Lily's bed.

Eurydice raised an eyebrow at Juno, smiling. "You think?"

Juno nodded. "Absolutely. They've got it so bad for each other."

Quite satisfied with themselves, the two girls walked off to their dormitory.




Lily was in the hospital wing until Christmas Eve, when Madame Pomfrey grudgingly let her out. She came back to the common room, only to find James holding a gift. "Happy release from the clutches of doom...a.k.a. the Hospital Wing."

"Very funny," she laughed, taking the gift and sitting down.

"Welcome back, Lily." Peter's voice sent an inexpressible shiver down her spine.  "Can I ask you something?"

The curse spoke for her: "Sure."

"How did you manage to get under that ice without leaving a mark? And you're such a good skater, too."

Her cheeks burned with rage, but it merely looked as though she was blushing at the compliment. "I don't know. Weird, isn't it?"

James nodded. "Yeah. Let's not think about that. Open your present!"

She started to rip the paper off, only to find a large bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. "Thank you!" She hugged first James, then, with a wave of revulsion, Peter. The curse wouldn't let her treat him any differently than James. "Thank you! You know these are my favorites, don't you?"

James actually had no idea, but lied through his teeth. "Uh, yeah! Yeah, I knew they were your favorite." He shot a conspiratory glance at Peter, who winked back.

Lily opened the bag and took out a dark green one. "Hmm...watermelon or broccoli? That's the question. You want it, James?"

He shook his head fearfully. "Nuh-uh! I gave those up a loooong time ago, when Sirius slipped me an anchovy-flavored one. I nearly puked!" Crossing his arms, he glared at Lily. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing-HAHAHAHAHA! Sorry. Involuntary reflex-HEHEHEHEHE! It's just...I can absolutely see Sirius doing something like that."

They sat up in the common room until 10 o'clock that night, when Peter fell asleep, hitting his head on the table. That woke him up, and, rubbing his forehead, he went off to bed.

James started to follow. "I'm pretty tired, too."

Lily got up and walked towards the steps, but stopped near the bottom. "James?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you get over to me so fast? On the ice, I mean?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I can't really remember anything from when I saw you go through...not really clearly." He smiled a little. "Weird, huh?"

"Yeah..." They stood for a second, then she rushed over and hugged him. "Thanks."

He didn't say anything. It was that same feeling as at the ball earlier that year, when he had seen her walk in. All he did was keep his arms around her, not wanting to let go.  And for a few seconds, Lily remembered when they had "accidentally" kissed, and wished in spite of herself that they hadn't decided to forget about it. 

But, as all things come to an end, so ended this embrace. "Good night, James."

"Good night."