Author's Note : 'Ello, Tink! Sorry it's been so long. I had this thing called my junior year of high school and I made an important discovery : Stress is not my friend. Anyways, thanks to everyone for their lovely reviews, and don't worry! Everything will get sorted out in due time! No worries, no worries! It'll all come full circle, just be patient! Anyways, here's the third chapter, which has been in revision for about eight and a half million years. No kidding. I hope you all enjoy it. It's sort of a exposition bit, not much action, just a lot of explanation.
Disclaimer : I don't own anything you recognize. Please don't sue me.
Chapter 3
Professor McGonagall hurried down the hall, several bobby pins in her mouth, and a few in her hands, as she pinned her hair back into its usual sleek bun. Her heels clicked over the floor, her robes swishing. She came to the snarling gargoyle.
"Peppermint nougat," She barked.
The gargoyle leapt aside, and she mounted the ascending staircase. At the top of the stairs, she knocked hurriedly.
"Come in," Came Dumbledore's voice.
"Headmaster," She said, "What is the matter?"
"This is the matter," Dumbledore handed her the envelope and letter.
McGonagall's jaw dropped, "How could they know that the Eviensir is here?"
"I've got no idea. They must have someone now that went here, or somehow knows her. And she must have slipped up somehow. I can't imagine her doing something that thoughtless though."
McGonagall sat down, her hand to her mouth, breathing hard.
"You know what this means, don't you...Albus?"
"Yes, Minerva."
"How will we do it?"
"There is nothing to do but to tell her straight out. She has to accept it, or it will destroy her. She already has a hidden life, and that is difficult enough."
McGonagall blinked rapidly, "Oh, but, Albus, she already has so much pressure on her. She's been doing all this running around-"
"We don't have a choice, Minerva!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "She can not leave Hogwarts without knowing who she is!"
McGonagall looked shocked. Outbursts such as that from Dumbledore were few and far between. In all her time with him, she had seen Albus lose his temper only once or twice.
"I will ask her to tea," McGonagall said, "Monday afternoon."
Monday afternoon came very quickly. Lily dug deep into her wardrobe and pulled out a knee-length silk dress, of a green just lighter than her eyes. Sighing, for she very much disliked dresses, she pulled it over her head. Looking in the mirror, Lily brushed her hair until it shone, and fastened Severus' necklace around her neck. Then she slipped on white heels, and made her way down to McGonagall's office.
Lily knocked politely, then entered. Professor McGonagall was standing there in her usual dark green robes.
"Good afternoon, Professor," Lily said.
"Good afternoon, Miss Evans. This way, please."
Professor McGonagall led her to a door in the far corner, and opened it. Lily did not notice how tightly her professor gripped the doorknob, to keep from shaking.
On the other side of the door was a small parlor. Heavy brown velvet curtains were pulled back to let the cool winter light stream in, shining onto a walnut table and chairs set with a silver tea set. Lily took her seat opposite Professor McGonagall. Professor McGongall poured the tea, and offered sugar and cream, and thin slices of fruitcake.
"Excuse me, Professor," Lily said after about five minutes of silence, "You've never called me to have tea with you before. Is something the matter?"
"Yes," She replied abruptly, "And no. This is a matter of great importance, concerning you, Lily."
"Have I done something wrong?" Lily asked.
"If being born to your fate is wrong."
Lily didn't know what to say to that, so she took another sip of tea. She thought that McGonagall seemed quite unusual. Normally, her face was set, her eyes could look at anything and strip off all of its covers to reveal what it truly was. But now, her eyes flickered from Lily's face, to the tea set, to the door. Lily felt very unsettled. It was not like McGonagall to talk in such a romantic fashion, either.
Finally, McGonagall spoke, "Miss Evans, as you know, the Death Eaters have come back to the mountains."
Lily resisted the temptation to say something sarcastic. As uncharacteristic as McGonagall seemed, Lily knew that she shouldn't press her luck.
"Yes, I realized that last week. What are they looking for now? Not the Stone?"
"Of course not," Professor McGonagall drained her cup, and set it down with a little clink on the saucer, "No. The Stone is...Safe. No, they are looking for a person. A person of great power."
Lily's brows came together. McGonagall took a deep breath.
"Miss Evans, have you ever heard of the Eviensir?"
Lily nodded, "When I was going to save Severus, I heard two guards talking. I couldn't hear what all they said, but I did hear them say Eviensir. I don't know what it is, though."
"As you know, Hogwarts was founded roughly a thousand years ago. Godric Gryffindor, the founder of your house, was married."
What has this to do with anything? Lily wondered. She knew the basic history of Hogwarts fairly well, as most of the students did. But what did wizards from a thousand years ago have to do with the present?
"To Rowena Ravenclaw, right?"
"Ravenclaw!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed with a short laugh, "Good God no! No, Gryffindor was not married to Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. He was married to another witch. Her name was Lilania. But she was not just an ordinary witch. She was the Eviensir."
"What's an Eviensir?"
"She was the Eviensir, Miss Evans. There is only one Eviensir. And Eviensir is a word from what was the wizards' tongue, which has died out. It translates to Young Woman of Steel."
Lily snorted, "It sounds like some Muggle Superhero."
McGonagall's brows came together. Lily dropped her eyes and took another sip of tea.
"It does indeed. But Lilania was not a superhero. Not in the Muggle sense, at least. She was no ravishing beauty, but her presence commanded respect. What was special about her...Well...She was a guide, a leader of her people. Very few of them knew it, but when times were the hardest, she was their protector."
"What was she, invincible?"
"No...She was killed at a very young age. However, she had certain powers."
Once again, Lily wondered what Godric Gryffindor's wife had to do with anything.
"Powers? What, could she fly or something?"
"No. She was unusually athletic. Very fast, very swift, very graceful. Lilania was better at sports than most men, especially Quidditch and various Muggle hunting sports, though she rarely participated in those. You'd have to do research to find out what all the powers are. Her main gift, however, was the gift of J'anjuilia."
"J'anjuilia?" Lily's tongue stumbled over the word.
"It's another word in the Wizarding Tongue. It translates to Heart of Steel."
"I'm sorry, professor, but this is beginning to sound very corny. What has some dead witch's weird powers got to do with me?"
"Miss Evans, may I remind you that, though we are not in the classroom, I am still your teacher?"
Lily frowned. Well, at least McGonagall was acting normal again. For a minute, there was silence. The, Lily took a ginger cookie.
"So what happened to her?"
Professor McGonagall sighed, "As it turns out, someone else loved Lilania as well."
"Who?"
"Salazar Slytherin."
"Go figure."
McGonagall ignored this commen, "In fact, Lilania and Slytherin had been lovers for several years before, before she met Gryffindor. Then she fell in love with Gryffindor, and they married and had a child. His name was Catrion. A short while later, Lilania died. Nontheless, her line continued on, though all her descendatns were males. A very great Seer prophecised that, when her descendant was born that was female, and in the exact image of her, Lilania would return to earth to protect the Wizarding World from evil."
Finally. Lily's mind started spinning. It was one of those strange moments when she thought she knew exaclty what was going on, but she did not want to believe it. And she did not want to say anything, in case she was wrong. She thought if she could stop her mind from thinking it, it would not be true. But Lily's mind continued, forging ahead in its seemingly endless analyzation.
"And she would protect them all her life?" Lily asked hopefully.
"Yes, but the story of Lilania would be replayed. But this new Lilania - "
"Me?"
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, her eyes bright, then closed it, and nodded.
"This new Lilania, what will she do?"
"She has the Heart of Steel, but she is also the Feriolon."
"What's that?"
McGonagall swallowed the last of her tea and set her cup down. The look on her face was the closest Lily had ever seen her to crying.
"Professor?"
"It is the...soul destined to die."
Lily spouted the first words that came to mind, "But we're all going to die, so what does it matter? I mean, we can't say when..."
"Yes. But there's more. She has the Heart of Steel, but like Lilania, she's going to fall in love. Then, the Heart will be stripped off to reveal the Fandiolarin, the Heart of Secret Feelings, the Heart of Passion."
"Wait a minute," Lily's head was spinning even faster, "You're telling me that...I'm going to lose this power of mine, because I'm going to fall in love? How do we know that I haven't already lost it?"
"Will we know."
"And then I'm going to die?"
Lily, sitting there in the chair, suddenly felt very small. So this was her fate? She was destined to die young because of the jealousy of Salazar Slytherin?
"How did Lilania die?"
"Slytherin murdered her out of jealousy."
"And Gryffindor?"
"Yes."
Lily nodded. The room around her expanded further. She could see her seventeen years plainly before her eyes, and wondered why she hadn't suspected earlier.
Lily was born in a small village just outside the Scottish border. When she was a baby, and she learned to walk, she would run about her family's small farm, tearing things apart. When she got a little older, and went to school, none of the boys could run as fast as her. Lily had even been in her share of fistfights, and won them all. She was a fierce, red-headed warrior with a sharp wit and a sharper tongue. When she came to Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat sat on her head for about two seconds before it gasped, and pronounced her a Gryffindor. And when she had walked into the room, at eleven years old, she felt as though all the Gryffindors were her siblings, and in a way, they belonged to her. Certainly, they did not fight that feeling. There was something about little Lily Evans that was so alive, blazing, constant movement and still solitude, emotions running high at all times. A swiftly beating heart.
"Is there anything else?"
"I know this must come as a shock to you, Miss Evans, but it is our duty to let you know who you are. And yes, there is more. This new Lilania, Lily, is the Eviensir of her time. And when the Heart of Passion is revealed, she will bear the Iriansar."
"What does all that mean? What's this Iriansar?"
"You will have a child. The child will be the Iriansar. The little boy destined to destroy the evildoer."
"Voldemort?"
"Yes."
There they fell silent. Outside, the grey clouds rolled slowly over the grounds. Students strolled in long cloaks through the muddy lawns. House elves hurried about preparing dinner in the kitchen below the Great Hall. Papers rustled and books slammed open and closed in the library, like a hundred clocks marking every second. But in that small room, there was utter stillness. Only deep inside of Lily did her heart beat, steadily, constant, swift.
"Are you sure about this?" Lily asked, "You're sure you haven't mixed it up somehow? You know that I'm Muggle-born, right?"
McGonagall nodded, "There are many families, Miss Evans, besides your's, that lost track of their Wizarding heritage. There was a time when it was considered shameful by Muggle society, and your family, like many others, was probably willing to do a little forgetting on their part. Unfortunately, heirs of a wizard as powerful as Godric Gryffindor can not forget forever."
"And they can't choose their fates, either, can they?" Lily added, without really expecting an answer, her voice bitter.
"You are a rare species, Miss Evans. You know your fate, and your destiny."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Lily asked. Her hand was shaking so badly that the cup was making a persistent rattling noise against the saucer, "Am I supposed to feel...Lucky or something? Because I can tell you -!"
"No," McGonagall interrupted, "But now you understand what it is that Lord Voldemort wants."
"What about it?" Lily responded in a surly voice, "Who cares?"
"Does that not help you?" McGonagall asked, though her patience was clearly on the edge.
Lily was tempted to say, "Not at all," but McGonagall had a way of saying things so that Lily knew she would have to think about her answer. So she thought. Voldemort wanted her dead. Well, that was no news. Nearly a third of Voldemort's followers that were in Azkaban were there by Lily's doing. Ever since her fourth year, when she had begun these nighttime journey to the mountains on a winged steed, and had first outsmarted Voldemort's cleverest guards, Voldemort had wanted that person...The assassin in the black cloak who was little more than a shadow, and now he knew who the assassin was. The girl with the fiery hair and the emerald eyes, and he wanted her dead.
But what did that tell her? Lily looked at McGonagall, who was looking concerned. Clearly, she just wanted some confirmation that Lily wasn't going to go insane and throw herself off of the Astronomy tower. So Lily gave it to her.
"I am the Eviensir," Lily said slowly.
McGonagall nodded, pleased, "You know your fate. The question now is : what will you do until fate takes action?"
"Fate already has, Professor."
Disclaimer : I don't own anything you recognize. Please don't sue me.
Chapter 3
Professor McGonagall hurried down the hall, several bobby pins in her mouth, and a few in her hands, as she pinned her hair back into its usual sleek bun. Her heels clicked over the floor, her robes swishing. She came to the snarling gargoyle.
"Peppermint nougat," She barked.
The gargoyle leapt aside, and she mounted the ascending staircase. At the top of the stairs, she knocked hurriedly.
"Come in," Came Dumbledore's voice.
"Headmaster," She said, "What is the matter?"
"This is the matter," Dumbledore handed her the envelope and letter.
McGonagall's jaw dropped, "How could they know that the Eviensir is here?"
"I've got no idea. They must have someone now that went here, or somehow knows her. And she must have slipped up somehow. I can't imagine her doing something that thoughtless though."
McGonagall sat down, her hand to her mouth, breathing hard.
"You know what this means, don't you...Albus?"
"Yes, Minerva."
"How will we do it?"
"There is nothing to do but to tell her straight out. She has to accept it, or it will destroy her. She already has a hidden life, and that is difficult enough."
McGonagall blinked rapidly, "Oh, but, Albus, she already has so much pressure on her. She's been doing all this running around-"
"We don't have a choice, Minerva!" Dumbledore exclaimed, "She can not leave Hogwarts without knowing who she is!"
McGonagall looked shocked. Outbursts such as that from Dumbledore were few and far between. In all her time with him, she had seen Albus lose his temper only once or twice.
"I will ask her to tea," McGonagall said, "Monday afternoon."
Monday afternoon came very quickly. Lily dug deep into her wardrobe and pulled out a knee-length silk dress, of a green just lighter than her eyes. Sighing, for she very much disliked dresses, she pulled it over her head. Looking in the mirror, Lily brushed her hair until it shone, and fastened Severus' necklace around her neck. Then she slipped on white heels, and made her way down to McGonagall's office.
Lily knocked politely, then entered. Professor McGonagall was standing there in her usual dark green robes.
"Good afternoon, Professor," Lily said.
"Good afternoon, Miss Evans. This way, please."
Professor McGonagall led her to a door in the far corner, and opened it. Lily did not notice how tightly her professor gripped the doorknob, to keep from shaking.
On the other side of the door was a small parlor. Heavy brown velvet curtains were pulled back to let the cool winter light stream in, shining onto a walnut table and chairs set with a silver tea set. Lily took her seat opposite Professor McGonagall. Professor McGongall poured the tea, and offered sugar and cream, and thin slices of fruitcake.
"Excuse me, Professor," Lily said after about five minutes of silence, "You've never called me to have tea with you before. Is something the matter?"
"Yes," She replied abruptly, "And no. This is a matter of great importance, concerning you, Lily."
"Have I done something wrong?" Lily asked.
"If being born to your fate is wrong."
Lily didn't know what to say to that, so she took another sip of tea. She thought that McGonagall seemed quite unusual. Normally, her face was set, her eyes could look at anything and strip off all of its covers to reveal what it truly was. But now, her eyes flickered from Lily's face, to the tea set, to the door. Lily felt very unsettled. It was not like McGonagall to talk in such a romantic fashion, either.
Finally, McGonagall spoke, "Miss Evans, as you know, the Death Eaters have come back to the mountains."
Lily resisted the temptation to say something sarcastic. As uncharacteristic as McGonagall seemed, Lily knew that she shouldn't press her luck.
"Yes, I realized that last week. What are they looking for now? Not the Stone?"
"Of course not," Professor McGonagall drained her cup, and set it down with a little clink on the saucer, "No. The Stone is...Safe. No, they are looking for a person. A person of great power."
Lily's brows came together. McGonagall took a deep breath.
"Miss Evans, have you ever heard of the Eviensir?"
Lily nodded, "When I was going to save Severus, I heard two guards talking. I couldn't hear what all they said, but I did hear them say Eviensir. I don't know what it is, though."
"As you know, Hogwarts was founded roughly a thousand years ago. Godric Gryffindor, the founder of your house, was married."
What has this to do with anything? Lily wondered. She knew the basic history of Hogwarts fairly well, as most of the students did. But what did wizards from a thousand years ago have to do with the present?
"To Rowena Ravenclaw, right?"
"Ravenclaw!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed with a short laugh, "Good God no! No, Gryffindor was not married to Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. He was married to another witch. Her name was Lilania. But she was not just an ordinary witch. She was the Eviensir."
"What's an Eviensir?"
"She was the Eviensir, Miss Evans. There is only one Eviensir. And Eviensir is a word from what was the wizards' tongue, which has died out. It translates to Young Woman of Steel."
Lily snorted, "It sounds like some Muggle Superhero."
McGonagall's brows came together. Lily dropped her eyes and took another sip of tea.
"It does indeed. But Lilania was not a superhero. Not in the Muggle sense, at least. She was no ravishing beauty, but her presence commanded respect. What was special about her...Well...She was a guide, a leader of her people. Very few of them knew it, but when times were the hardest, she was their protector."
"What was she, invincible?"
"No...She was killed at a very young age. However, she had certain powers."
Once again, Lily wondered what Godric Gryffindor's wife had to do with anything.
"Powers? What, could she fly or something?"
"No. She was unusually athletic. Very fast, very swift, very graceful. Lilania was better at sports than most men, especially Quidditch and various Muggle hunting sports, though she rarely participated in those. You'd have to do research to find out what all the powers are. Her main gift, however, was the gift of J'anjuilia."
"J'anjuilia?" Lily's tongue stumbled over the word.
"It's another word in the Wizarding Tongue. It translates to Heart of Steel."
"I'm sorry, professor, but this is beginning to sound very corny. What has some dead witch's weird powers got to do with me?"
"Miss Evans, may I remind you that, though we are not in the classroom, I am still your teacher?"
Lily frowned. Well, at least McGonagall was acting normal again. For a minute, there was silence. The, Lily took a ginger cookie.
"So what happened to her?"
Professor McGonagall sighed, "As it turns out, someone else loved Lilania as well."
"Who?"
"Salazar Slytherin."
"Go figure."
McGonagall ignored this commen, "In fact, Lilania and Slytherin had been lovers for several years before, before she met Gryffindor. Then she fell in love with Gryffindor, and they married and had a child. His name was Catrion. A short while later, Lilania died. Nontheless, her line continued on, though all her descendatns were males. A very great Seer prophecised that, when her descendant was born that was female, and in the exact image of her, Lilania would return to earth to protect the Wizarding World from evil."
Finally. Lily's mind started spinning. It was one of those strange moments when she thought she knew exaclty what was going on, but she did not want to believe it. And she did not want to say anything, in case she was wrong. She thought if she could stop her mind from thinking it, it would not be true. But Lily's mind continued, forging ahead in its seemingly endless analyzation.
"And she would protect them all her life?" Lily asked hopefully.
"Yes, but the story of Lilania would be replayed. But this new Lilania - "
"Me?"
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, her eyes bright, then closed it, and nodded.
"This new Lilania, what will she do?"
"She has the Heart of Steel, but she is also the Feriolon."
"What's that?"
McGonagall swallowed the last of her tea and set her cup down. The look on her face was the closest Lily had ever seen her to crying.
"Professor?"
"It is the...soul destined to die."
Lily spouted the first words that came to mind, "But we're all going to die, so what does it matter? I mean, we can't say when..."
"Yes. But there's more. She has the Heart of Steel, but like Lilania, she's going to fall in love. Then, the Heart will be stripped off to reveal the Fandiolarin, the Heart of Secret Feelings, the Heart of Passion."
"Wait a minute," Lily's head was spinning even faster, "You're telling me that...I'm going to lose this power of mine, because I'm going to fall in love? How do we know that I haven't already lost it?"
"Will we know."
"And then I'm going to die?"
Lily, sitting there in the chair, suddenly felt very small. So this was her fate? She was destined to die young because of the jealousy of Salazar Slytherin?
"How did Lilania die?"
"Slytherin murdered her out of jealousy."
"And Gryffindor?"
"Yes."
Lily nodded. The room around her expanded further. She could see her seventeen years plainly before her eyes, and wondered why she hadn't suspected earlier.
Lily was born in a small village just outside the Scottish border. When she was a baby, and she learned to walk, she would run about her family's small farm, tearing things apart. When she got a little older, and went to school, none of the boys could run as fast as her. Lily had even been in her share of fistfights, and won them all. She was a fierce, red-headed warrior with a sharp wit and a sharper tongue. When she came to Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat sat on her head for about two seconds before it gasped, and pronounced her a Gryffindor. And when she had walked into the room, at eleven years old, she felt as though all the Gryffindors were her siblings, and in a way, they belonged to her. Certainly, they did not fight that feeling. There was something about little Lily Evans that was so alive, blazing, constant movement and still solitude, emotions running high at all times. A swiftly beating heart.
"Is there anything else?"
"I know this must come as a shock to you, Miss Evans, but it is our duty to let you know who you are. And yes, there is more. This new Lilania, Lily, is the Eviensir of her time. And when the Heart of Passion is revealed, she will bear the Iriansar."
"What does all that mean? What's this Iriansar?"
"You will have a child. The child will be the Iriansar. The little boy destined to destroy the evildoer."
"Voldemort?"
"Yes."
There they fell silent. Outside, the grey clouds rolled slowly over the grounds. Students strolled in long cloaks through the muddy lawns. House elves hurried about preparing dinner in the kitchen below the Great Hall. Papers rustled and books slammed open and closed in the library, like a hundred clocks marking every second. But in that small room, there was utter stillness. Only deep inside of Lily did her heart beat, steadily, constant, swift.
"Are you sure about this?" Lily asked, "You're sure you haven't mixed it up somehow? You know that I'm Muggle-born, right?"
McGonagall nodded, "There are many families, Miss Evans, besides your's, that lost track of their Wizarding heritage. There was a time when it was considered shameful by Muggle society, and your family, like many others, was probably willing to do a little forgetting on their part. Unfortunately, heirs of a wizard as powerful as Godric Gryffindor can not forget forever."
"And they can't choose their fates, either, can they?" Lily added, without really expecting an answer, her voice bitter.
"You are a rare species, Miss Evans. You know your fate, and your destiny."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Lily asked. Her hand was shaking so badly that the cup was making a persistent rattling noise against the saucer, "Am I supposed to feel...Lucky or something? Because I can tell you -!"
"No," McGonagall interrupted, "But now you understand what it is that Lord Voldemort wants."
"What about it?" Lily responded in a surly voice, "Who cares?"
"Does that not help you?" McGonagall asked, though her patience was clearly on the edge.
Lily was tempted to say, "Not at all," but McGonagall had a way of saying things so that Lily knew she would have to think about her answer. So she thought. Voldemort wanted her dead. Well, that was no news. Nearly a third of Voldemort's followers that were in Azkaban were there by Lily's doing. Ever since her fourth year, when she had begun these nighttime journey to the mountains on a winged steed, and had first outsmarted Voldemort's cleverest guards, Voldemort had wanted that person...The assassin in the black cloak who was little more than a shadow, and now he knew who the assassin was. The girl with the fiery hair and the emerald eyes, and he wanted her dead.
But what did that tell her? Lily looked at McGonagall, who was looking concerned. Clearly, she just wanted some confirmation that Lily wasn't going to go insane and throw herself off of the Astronomy tower. So Lily gave it to her.
"I am the Eviensir," Lily said slowly.
McGonagall nodded, pleased, "You know your fate. The question now is : what will you do until fate takes action?"
"Fate already has, Professor."