Lily Chapter 46: Ice, a harry potter fanfic

Lily

Chapter 46

A/N: I'm sooo sorry that it's taken me so long to get this out! First of all, I've been busy beyond mortal comprehension (lol), and second of all, I admit to writer's block for just about the first time in
this series. Total idea blockage happening. But I'm back and, hopefully, better than ever! All right...*rubs her hands together evilly* Let's get cracking, shall we?

"Where did I put that music box?" Lily stormed around the girls' dormitory, upturning everything in her path. It was the day that the Hogwarts students were leaving for the summer holidays, and she had suddenly realized that her music box was missing. "Maybe it's under the bed...maybe someone broke it! What if someone just swept it up? Maybe someone stole it! Maybe it fell out the window!"

"Or maybe," Juno said from the doorway, "You carelessly left it on your bedside table and I picked it up to get it to you and rushed down to the entrance hall only to be told by Remus and James that you were up here looking for it." After catching her breath, Juno pressed the palm-sized music box into Lily's hand and walked back downstairs.

Lily sat down on her bed and examined the music box. It was the same pale yellow, squat little article with the same white-gold hinges and piping along the edges. With slightly trembling fingers, she undid the tarnished clasp. The tinny, staccato melody played just as it always had, and the mirrored ice stage rose with comforting familiarity, but - "Oh!" Lily realized with a start that the little glass skater was missing.

She snapped the lid shut and pocketed the music box, the song cut off all too suddenly. Her eyes wide, she ran down the steps and caught up with Juno. "Juno! Juno, did you notice that anything dropped when you were carrying this up to me?"

"No-ooo, why?"

"Well, did you take it out?"

"Take what out?"

"The skater! There's always been this little figurine in there of a skater, and she skates around to the music, it must be a magnet or something..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. The first time I even took notice of that music box is when you left it up there. Do you need some help with finding it?"

"It's just that I've had this thing forever, and my mum and dad got it for me when I was a baby, and..." Lily was on the verge of tears as her voice cracked.

Juno grabbed Lily's wrists and held them down, tilting her face downward and looking up into Lily's eyes. "Okay, calm down. That's the first thing. Take a deep breath and relax. This isn't as big a deal as you think. We'll retrace my steps and find it."

Lily took a few deep breaths and cleared her throat of the web of tears before nodding and shaking her wrists free. "Okay."

They walked gingerly back up the stairs, scouring every step, then made an intricate search of the dormitory. After they didn't find it even there, Lily led Juno in thundering down the stairs and looking in every nook and cranny in the common room. Every second that they didn't find the little glass girl, the horrid feeling in the pit of Lily's stomach doubled and she grew more hysterical in her movements. When it got to the point that she knocked over a goblet of cranberry juice in the Great Hall, Juno gently suggested that Lily board the Hogwarts Express while Juno finished the search.

Lily nodded dazedly and walked out to the train. Juno would find it...Juno would find it.

"Prongs, I've got no idea how Hufflepuff won the Cup. I mean, they're just...Hufflepuff!" Remus was saying.

"Yeah, I mean, the only reason they got to the final at all is that they beat Slytherin by so much. They got completely slaughtered by Ravenclaw!" Peter put in.

"I know, I know." James sounded - and looked - somewhere between miserable and shocked.
"It's that stupid new Seeker they got! They were just using a reserve those first two games, but then they took out the big guns...Irving." Irving MacDonald was the legendary Hufflepuff Seeker. He was the most muscular student in his year, and, luckily for Gryffindor, he had just graduated.

Lily sat down and tried to shift her focus. "Well, he won't be there next year. Don't worry, you'll definitely win."

"Thank you for that vote of confidence, Milady," Remus said with an old-fashioned, chivalrous air. Lily stood up and curtseyed. It seemed as though, with Sirius rather out of commission, Remus had taken over as the 'class clown' of the bunch.

"I guess so, but I've heard that the Slytherins are getting this new Seeker next year...some girl named Holly. She's supposed to be a bit of a steamroller, but come on -" James snorted in laughter. "I mean, Holly? How tough can she really be?"

All three boys laughed, but Lily looked at James with her eyebrows sky-high. "James, do you remember when I slapped you when I was a first year?" She blushed a little at bringing back that memory.

"Hard to forget," James said, rubbing his cheek. "I've still got a welt here."

"Oh, get stuffed...well, you asked me if I ever thought of being a Beater, right?"

"I still think you should."

"Thanks, but can you imagine what the rest of the school would think if they heard about this tough new Gryffindor beater...named Lily?"

Peter, James, and Remus seemed to be letting that sink in. Then, just as Lily was fully concentrated on the conversation and the victorious smile started to curl up her face, Juno walked in. The feeling that there was a stone in her stomach returned as she stood up and looked for the tiny glass head poking out of Juno's hand or pocket.

"I'm sorry, Lily. I couldn't find it anywhere." And she really did sound sorry, but that didn't make Lily feel any better.

"Find what?" James asked.

"My-my music box," Lily said tearfully, fumbling it out of her pocket and opening it to show James. "See, there sh-should be a glass ice skater there, but it's gone!"

"What's the big deal? You can just buy another one..." Remus shrank back under the fierce glares of Lily and Juno. "...right?"

"NO! I can't just buy another one! My mum and dad bought it for me when I was a baby!" She sat down and stared down at the vacant mirror, watching her reflection warp as a tear fell onto it. "I don't even think they make these anymore."

James moved towards Lily and hesitantly put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Lily made a little impatient 'tsk' sound. "It's not your fault, so don't say you're sorry."

"Okay, then..." Quite at a loss for something to say, he moved back in the other direction, shrugging at the Cheshire-like Remus.

Juno sat down next to Lily and snapped the music box shut. "It's not going to do you any good to sit around and cry about it. Anyway, we don't even know if it was in there when I first picked it up. It's probably just in the dormitory, so we'll find it. Don't worry."

"I can't not worry! Have you ever lost something like this?"

"No, but-"

"It's just about the worst feeling in the world!"

"There's worse."

Everyone turned their heads as the new voice came from the doorway of the compartment. Sirius had been watching everything that was going on. "Trust me. There's worse."

All of a sudden, Lily felt utterly ashamed of being so materialistic. She stuffed the music box into her pocket and didn't talk about it for the rest of the train ride.

The journey back to King's Cross station was much more tense than usual. It was almost as though there was a fragile statue sitting in the far corner of the compartment, something that everyone kept glancing back at to see if it was okay, but didn't want to go near for fear of breaking it. Sirius didn't seem to notice everyone looking at him, though.

During the quiet periods when Remus wasn't making some weak attempts at joking, Peter wasn't complaining, and James wasn't trying to make conversation, Lily wondered about exactly how the music box worked. There had never been any evidence of a magnet, and the ice skate had always looked wafer-thin and totally transparent. How DID that skater glide around the mirror? And where HAD that music always come from? It was too small to really contain the usual gears, and Lily suddenly realized that she had never had to wind it up. It just kept playing the music at one steady tempo, whenever the lid was opened. At first, Lily thought it may have been magic, but she immediately banished that idea from her mind. Her parents were both Muggles, how could they have gotten their hands on a magical music box?

All suspicions and thoughts vanished like smoke in the wind when the Hogwarts Express lurched to a halt. Everyone stood up, said their good-byes, and walked out to retrieve their luggage. Lily took down her trunk and wheeled it over to where Mr. Potter was standing.

Mr. Potter was wearing some fairly normal clothes, though James whispered to Lily that he didn't see the sense in the tie-dyed shirt and love beads. "Hey, you two! How was your term?"

"Pretty good, Dad."

"That's good..." He scanned the crowd as though looking for someone. "Now, where's Sirius?"

"Why?"

"Didn't they tell you? He'll be staying with us this summer until the Ministry can contact his great-aunt and uncle. They take a lot of holidays...he might be staying with us the whole summer."

James raised his eyebrows at Lily, as though questioning what she thought of that. Lily shrugged. Maybe Sirius would get better over the summer, just hanging out with James. But, Lily's intuition reminded her, this wasn't like a disease, something that Sirius would just get over. Time might heal all wounds, but it would be incredible if time was a good enough doctor to heal this one.

"Hi, Mr. Potter. I'm ready." Sirius had showed up, dragging a trunk behind him impassively.

"Oh, good." Mr. Potter took the trunk gingerly from Sirius and smiled supportively. Lily supposed that, if his hands hadn't been full with the trunk, he would have given Sirius the thumbs-up.

James gave Sirius an identical smile, and it was only then that Lily realized how much like his father James really looked. "This summer's going to be great."

"Sure," Sirius said. It didn't sound like he really believed himself, though.