Lily Chapter 41: Hogsmeade, a harry potter fanfic

Lily

Chapter 41

A/N- Aren't cliffhangers the most lovely things on Earth? They keep a reader in breathless suspense, awaiting anxiously the next installment with anime sweat drops on their brows...But enough poetry! You want to read the story, right?

Juno walked into the Great Hall, dark circles evident under her eyes. "Any..."

"Nope." Lily watched Juno make a rather rude gesture towards the Slytherins.

"They should all just go get stuffed!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Listen. Narcissa's just a pratty idiot who couldn't really magic her way out of a paper bag, so what are we all worried about?"

"We're worried about all the other pratty idiots who CAN magic their ways out of paper bags, so get off our backs!" Juno snapped.

Sirius saluted smartly. "Yes, ma'am! After I get off your backs, should I join the Slytherins at the taxidermist, ma'am?"

Juno was obviously not amused. Her fuse was dangerously short at the moment, so she slammed a fist on the table with every word, and pointed viciously at Sirius. "Listen! You don't seem to get this! My best friend is missing and has been for almost a month! Dumbledore couldn't find her! McGonagall couldn't find her! We got so desperate, we even asked Professor Lollio to find her! She couldn't find her, either, even when we convinced her that we wanted her found because someone was asking her to a ball! Nobody can find her! SHE! IS! GONE!" Somehow, the reality of saying those words stunned Juno.

"Okay, I'll go down to the dungeons to be whipped and hung at dawn, that gonna make you happy?" Sirius smiled sardonically, trying to bring Juno back to normal.

Juno dropped her hand and spoke in a rather small voice, as though Sirius hadn't said anything. "She's gone. Eurydice is gone."

Sirius shrugged, starting to feel a little bad. "Well...I guess she's gotta be somewhere, doesn't she?"

Remus had just arrived. "Haven't you already said enough, Padfoot?" Sirius looked from Lily to Remus to Juno, trying to find some kind of support. When none of their faces showed any sympathy or amusement, he seemed, for once in his life, speechless.

"Er...sorry, I guess. It's just...er...er..." It was obviously a very weird situation for him to be robbed of his impulsive, sarcastic nature by such a tough room. "Okay, well, they SHOULD go get stuffed. Cheer up, everyone! C'mon, Hogsmeade tomorrow! Maybe Eurydice's there!"

"Class," Lily said, rising abruptly. "We've got Potions. Bye, Remus, bye, Sirius."

Juno followed in her wake, still looking stunned at the fact that Eurydice was just nowhere to be found.

That night at dinner, Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat. "Pardon me for interrupting your sumptuous dinner, but there is a very grave issue at hand. A student has gone missing."

All around the hall, people whispered to their friends.

"It's that Eurydice girl, I told you!"

"I heard that Narcissa got someone to...ya know..."

Dumbledore raised a hand for silence, taking brief note of the smirks on some Slytherins' faces. "If anyone has any verifiable information as to Miss Ramsey's whereabouts, approach the nearest teacher immediately. I cannot stress enough the urgency of this situation. You may all return...to your dinner now." He had paused, noticing that very few Slytherins had stopped eating.

James woke up early the next morning and took a piece of old parchment from under his bed. "Wake up! Come on, wake up, you guys, time to go!" As Sirius, Remus, and Peter yawned and
pulled on their robes, James stood impatiently by the door. "Let's go!" The other three Marauders followed him down the staircase and across the common room to the portrait hole.

The moment James pushed it open, he heard a voice from across the room. "And just where do you four think you're going?"

James whipped around to see Lily, standing at the bottom of the girls' dormitory stairs, looking slightly cross. "Oh...it's only you, Lily."

"What do you mean, 'it's only me?'"

"Well, we thought it was Professor McGonagall or someone like that," Remus blurted.

"Oh," Lily seemed rather delighted. "And exactly why would it be so bad for McGonagall to catch you?"

"No reason!" Sirius scrambled to cover his tracks. "No reason at all. Now, you go back and get your beauty rest. You need it, if you don't mind me saying so."

James shook his head a little indignantly. "Knock it off, Sirius."

Sirius made a face like he was holding something back. It looked painful. "Give me that parchment, now!"

"But it's-"

"I don't care if it's the map! Give me the parchment!" He snatched it from James and scribbled something down on it. "Ah...that's better."

Strange though Sirius's behavior was, Lily was more concerned with his words. "Ah-hah! It has something to do with that map! Going to Hogsmeade a little early, are you? Well, I'm not going to stand for this!"

"Oh, come on, Lily!"

"Don't tell McGonagall!"

(Sirius scribbled something on the parchment again)

Lily grabbed the Invisibility Cloak from Remus and swirled it about her shoulders. "Tell McGonagall? Why would I do that? I'm coming with you!"

Remus looked at Sirius, his mouth open. "Is that okay?"

Sirius, while writing, spoke quite rationally. "Well, she does happen to have the advantage, seeing as she's invisible and we're not. You can come with us, Lil, but on TWO conditions." He held the map just out of her reach. "First, you let ME carry the map. Second, you walk right on over here and give James a big kiss."

Lily breezed past them, opening the portrait hole and walking out. She knew they were following, but that's not what she was concentrating on. For some reason, Sirius's second condition hadn't sounded too terrible. She had honestly considered giving James an anonymous kiss on the cheek, but then realized the ridicule that she would have suffered from Sirius. No, it was all just the power of suggestion. One too many people had thought that she liked James, and that was affecting her judgment! Lily mentally cursed everyone who had ever assumed that there was anything between her and James.

"Wait up!" Remus's stage whisper echoed down the corridor. "Wait for us, come on!"

Lily ducked behind a suit of armor, took off the Invisibility Cloak, and stepped back out.

"Well, at least you had the common decency to wait when we asked you to!" Sirius had put on a slightly 'hoity-toity' voice.

Lily smiled deviously. "It had nothing to do with common decency. I just don't know how to get into Hogsmeade without that map."

James looked like he wasn't quite sure if that was supposed to be funny or not. There was a tiny half-smile on his face that gave Lily an odd little feeling in her stomach. "Well...which passageway do you want to use?" He held up the parchment, tapped it with his wand, and spoke. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Lines of ink stretched like thin spider-legs across the paper as James examined the map. "Right. All the teachers are in their offices, and Mrs. Norris is on the fourth floor corridor, so we don't have to worry about them. And you remember that this one-" he pointed to the passage behind a mirror "-is caved in. I think we should go through the Dissendium passage, cos then we can go to the Honeyduke's cellar and nick some sweets. How about it?"

"Dissendium." Remus whispered, pointing his wand toward the statue of the one-eyed witch. It immediately moved to the side, revealing a door. Motioning for Lily to go first, Sirius shoved her down the rocky slide before she could object.

"Ahhhhh!" Lily flared her limbs in windmill-like motions, completely disoriented. Once she slid onto level ground, she heard Sirius's voice cascading closer every second.

"Weeeeeee!" An utterly estatic Sirius landed with a thud and skipped to her side.

Lily took a slow breath before turning and saying in a dangerously soft voice, "Don't EVER do that to me again! Got it?" Sirius' grin broadened maddeningly, almost as if he was saying, 'I know something you don't know!'

"Lumos," James murmured as he, Remus, and Peter jumped off the steep slope and onto the dirt-floored passageway.

Sirius started walking forward and beckoned for everyone to follow. "The map says it's that way to Honeydukes." Just as the special parchment revealed, they soon arrived in the cellar of the world-famous sweets shop.

Lily's jaw dropped. Stacked to the ceiling were barrels full of all kinds of candy: pear drops, fizzing whizbees, Drooble's best blowing gum, licorice wands, Bertie Bott's every flavor beans, sugar quills, chocolate frogs, peppermint toads, pumpkin pasties, and everything in between. Suddenly, she noticed Sirius scooping up handfuls from each of the barrels and stuffing his pockets (and mouth). "Sirius!" Lily slapped his wrist as he reached into the next barrel.

"Ow! What's up with you?" He massaged his wrist injuredly.

"Put those back right now!" Lily demanded. "What you're doing is ILLEGAL!"

James crossed his arms and leaned back against a large barrel of Every Flavor Beans. "Aw, c'mon, Lily, lighten up!"

Sirius reached for a quill, but then thought better of it and went back to the issue at hand. "Listen, if you had known half the times that we'd done this before, we'd have been arrested twenty times over!"

"Well, it's just not right!"

Remus sighed. "Look, Lily, we're Marauders, not just by name, but by trade. And a marauder, by the strictest definition of the word is...Peter?"

"'Marauder- one who roams or goes around in quest of plunder; one who makes a raid for booty.'" He had obviously memorized the definition. "So, you see, it's our duty to 'raid for booty.' Care to join us?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Absolutely not. I'll just stand here and make sure you four don't take anything big." She strolled around the basement disapprovingly, pursing her lips like an old mother hen. The little red-haired girl looked more like McGonagall than anyone could have thought possible. However, it was just a front; she leaned over James's shoulder and whispered, "Aren't you going to get any sugar quills? They're my favorite!"

"James? James Potter?" A curvy-looking young woman appeared at the doorway of the Three
Broomsticks. "James Potter and Sirius Black, back in here at last!"

"Hey! Rosemerta, we haven't seen you for over a week!" Lily shot Sirius a curious look.

"A week isn't THAT long." Lily muttered to James. "How often DO you come here?" James shrugged as though the action answered her question. She sighed loudly in frustration as Madam Rosemerta led them to an empty table.

"And who's your lady friend?" Madam Rosemerta teased, making conversation before taking their orders.

Sirius scribbled something else on the parchment, saying, "Lily Evans."

"Oh! Lily! I've heard so much about you!"

Lily arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, my little sister. She talks about you constantly!" Madam Rosemerta smiled warmly as if knowing her for years.

"Who's your sister?"

"Eurydice Ramsey."

James' smile turned to a frown, his eyes shifted downward.

The smile faded off of Rosmerta's face. "What? What's wrong?"

Remus bit his lip anxiously and glanced at the other Marauders. "Er...I think we'd better tell you something, Rosmerta....."

"So....she's gone?" Madam Rosemerta dabbed at her eyes with the edge of the nearest napkin. "Just gone?"

Feeling her voice was going to crack, Lily nodded.

"Madam?!? Can I get another Butter Beer?" A man from a nearby table waved his hand to get her attention.

"Yes, sir. I'll be over in a minute." Madam Rosemerta hoisted herself off her chair, looking as though she had a small lead weight in her chest. "I'll be back in a moment."

Remus slurped rudely through his straw while Lily gazed pass his shoulder. The man on whom Madam Rosemerta was waiting, occupied a table in a dark corner. He was scowling and grumbling to himself, seeming rather miserable. His dusky hair hung limply over his eyes, hiding his stonelike features.

As soon as Lily noticed him, the man flipped his hair to one side with a jerk of his head. He lifted his gaze slightly, making eye contact with her. His stare reminded her of an eagle who just found it's prey, burrowing through hers like an ant to the dirt. An odd sensation developed at the pit of her stomach, causing her to shift uncomfortably in her seat. There was something about that man's gaze that made her very nervous.

"Lily?" Remus questioned her. "Are you okay? You're looking kinda pale..."

"I'm fine." Lily answered, still staring in the same direction.

"Are you sure?" Remus pressed on.

Lily's hand raked through her hair in annoyance and confusion. "Have you ever had a bad feeling?"

"Yeah. Once a month," He joked.

"No, what I mean is....have you ever had an uneasy feeling about someone that you've never
met before?"

"Actually, yes. See that guy over there? Behind you? He's giving me the creeps." Remus gestured passed her. "He's been staring at you for at least ten minutes!"

"Him?" Lily twisted her body, looking over her own shoulder.

"Yeah, him. He's giving me the creeps." Remus shuddered, trying to make his point.

Lily shifted one shoulder in a half shrug. She turned around in her chair, not getting why Remus felt uneasy about the brown haired teen behind her. The boy was even sitting with an elderly woman! Lily grunted softly in confusion.

Remus made a face, then went back to his drink without uttering another word. Lily, too, turned back to her butter beer, slurping and sipping.

"C'mon! At this rate, we'll never make it to Zonko's!!" Peter whined from the other side of the table.

"Does anyone know what time it is?"

James looked at a high-tech device on his wrist. "Past curfew."

Lily groaned involuntarily.

"Is this it?" The lady at the cash register asked.

"No," Sirius dumped another pile of dungbombs, joke books, fake wands, and other little goodies on the counter. "The extra dungbombs are for Amelia."

"James?" Lily pleaded.

"Hey, it's not my fault if Sirius is polluting her tender little mind," James mumbled sarcastically, taking out several Sickles to pay for the tricks.

"Thank you, have a nice day!" The employee stuffed the purchases into bags and watched the five Hogwarts students leave.

"It's getting dark." Lily looked around, only the shapes of objects could vaguely be seen.

"And cold." Sirius wrapped his cloak over his body protectively. He exhaled, his breath crystallizing before him, which made Lily giggle uneasily.

"What's so funny?" He asked grumpily.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." Lily shivered slightly as she broke the silence, "Who has the Invisibility Cloak?"

"I do." James reached into his pocket, bringing out silver material.

"Can I see it? Please? Just for a minute." She pleaded.

"Ooookay, but only for a minute." James watched as Sirius scribbled furiously on the back of the parchment.

"Thanks." Lily whipped it around her shoulders.

She bent down and picked up a small pile of the early snow, clonking Remus in the back of his head.

He peered around blankly, unaware of where she stood. "That's not fair! I can't even see you!" Remus whined, brushing off the melting snow that was sliding down his neck and onto his shirt collar.

"I think it's quite fair!" Lily giggled.

"Well, you have the cloak!"

"If you want it so bad, come and get it!" James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter made a quick dash in the direction of where the snowball came from. Instead of running away from their approaching forms, she stepped closer. Chuckling evilly, she grabbed two snowballs, one in each hand, and aimed them towards James and Sirius.

Splosh! Splat! She hit her targets!

"Hey!"

"What'd you do that for?"

Lily skipped across the snow and into a patch of bushes. Ducking low, she took off the cloak and set it neatly on a branch. As suddenly as she set the cloak down, a hand clamped itself over her mouth, and another around her waist; pulling her farther in the branches.

She bit down on the fingers that held her mouth shut; sinking her teeth into the person's flesh until she felt him bleed. Panic and confusion swam through her veins like a horrible current. Her mind screamed 'RUN!!' as she flailed her limbs in every direction, struggling to get free. Lily was running quickly out of energy as her efforts weakened.

"Lily? We give up! Let's get back to Hogwarts now!" James' voice rang in her ears.

"Mmmmmmmmmmmhhhllllllmmmmm!" The tight hand muffled her words, making it impossible for her to talk.

"Yeah, c'mon, Lily! We've had enough!" The voice that rang piercingly from the edge of the woods struck such fear into her heart that she had never felt before.

The person standing behind her with a hood covering his face...was not Peter.