The Fifth House
Disclaimer: Need I say it? Really, just assume that you know what would be said in one of my disclaimers.
Author's Note: Hello, all! My computer is royally screwed. Let's just cross out fingers {but not right now, I'm typing…}, and hope for the best… This chapter is a flash back. Yes, the whole chapter is one, long flashback. But it's important to the plot!
Thanx for the reviews! I'm up to 95!
Let's go!
Curtains Up!
Chapter Eighteen
~Flashback~ Takes place in the field near the Hogwarts courtyard
A teenage girl thought carefully while examining the Chinese Checker board. She was near losing the game. She had never lost before, and she did not intend to break that title.
"Won't you just move, Lily? So what if you lose one game. It's not like it's a championship," the girl's opponent said.
"It may not be a championship, but I have a record to uphold!" Lily Evans protested.
"Yes, but it's deathly hot outside in the sun, can't we just move the board to the shade, at the very least?" her opponent said.
"And have you tamper with my pieces? I don't think so, Fletcher, I'm smarter than that," Lily said.
"Why would I do that?" Fletcher said.
"Because if you said that you beat Lily Evans in a game, you would brag about it to everyone, especially to James!" Lily said matter-of-factly.
"Aw, come on, why would I do that to my favorite Chinese checkers partner? If it's so important to you, I wouldn't tell James Potter, because everyone already knows you're madly in love with him," Fletcher said.
"I am not madly in love with him! Mundungus Alan Fletcher, don't you make me come over to your side of the board and concede for you!" Lily said threateningly.
"Fine, I won't. I concede," he said.
"Okay, I win!" Lily said happily.
"Can we go inside the castle now? That new magic cooling charm works wonders, and it's sweltering outside!" Mundungus said.
"Fine. I'll clean up the board," Lily said.
"See you in a little!" he said as he walked away towards his and Lily's friends, James Potter and Natasha Willock.
Suddenly, something clicked inside Lily's head. "Hey, Mundungus, get over here!"
Mundungus, Natasha and James walked over to Lily.
"I just realized something. You can't concede, it isn't you turn," Lily said.
"Oh my goodness, Lily, you still won! You always win. I mean, seriously, have you ever lost a game?" Mundungus asked her.
"No! And I never intend to!" Lily defended.
"Oh, of course not. The great Lily Evans wins every single game she's challenged to," Natasha said sarcastically, in a joking sort of way.
"Oh, shove it, Tasha," Lily said.
"Oh, Potter by the way," Mundungus started, turning to face his friend. "Lily is madly in love with you."
"I am not!" Lily screamed jumping on Mundungus.
James's face was slightly pink, but he kept his cool about the situation.
"Just leave her alone, Fletcher," James said.
"Oh, sticking up for your girlfriend?" Mundungus asked. By now all four were laughing over his pathetic fight against Lily.
James was just about to jump him when the sky suddenly turned an eerie indigo black. Clouds stormed in quickly, and thunder rumbled in the distance. Lily and Natasha shrieked, replacing their former laughter. The four ran towards a giant tree as a bolt of lightening cut through the ebony sky.
The four huddle together under a willow.
"We can't get to the castle, if we run the lightening will electrocute us!" said Natasha.
"The storm should blow over soon," Mundungus said.
Lily whimpered. She was terrified. James wasn't sure it would blow over that quickly.
"What the-'' James started to say, as blue sparks shot out from the distance.
The sparks burst into brilliant, luminous swirls in the sky.
"Fireworks," Lily whispered.
Then, one of the sparks hit the ground and the earth sunk into the ground.
Natasha screamed bloody murder. Although, no one could hear it over the thunder.
More sparks came shooting towards the ground, and more earth kept sinking, until the students were on one circle of ground surrounding by a canyon.
A shrill, high-pitched voice laughed penetratingly into the storm, and a final spark hit the ground, causing Natasha to fall over the edge.
If it wasn't for Mundungus, who had been holding her hand through the whole event, she would have died. But Mundungus managed to pull her back over the side.
"Ceaso Existicioso!" boomed a voice from the side of the field where the four were.
This enchantment, whoever had said it, it caused the sky to go into a cloudless, pale blue color. The sunken pieces of earth slowly rose to fit back where they initially were perfectly. The wind stopped abruptly.
"Wow," Lily said out loud, right before she fainted onto the ground.
Four days later, Hospital Wing
"How did I get here?" Lily said.
"Oh dear, you've finally waken!" the school nurse said excitedly as she scurried over to Lily's bedside.
"You've been through quite a trauma. Professor Dumbledore will explain things to the four of you shortly," the nurse explained. 'Oh, and dear, here's a cup of tea, my special recipe."
Lily smiled weakly and accepted the steaming teacup.
"Hey Lil," said a feeble voice from the next bed over.
"Hi James. How long have you been awake?" she asked, surprised to see him looking so frail.
"We've all been awake much longer than you Lily," Mundungus said, sitting up so that Lily could see him in the bed across from James.
"Hello to you too, Mundungus. Hi Tasha," she said to the two lying in the other beds.
"Hi Lily! The others are really weak, but I'm actually very awake and hyper!" Natasha said.
"She had a few cups too much tea," James explained to Lily in a quiet voice.
"Ah, I see," Lily said, smiling.
"Hello Lily, James, Mundungus, and Natasha," said a quiet voice from the doorway.
The four students looked over to see a smiling Professor Dumbledore.
"I expect that you all would like an explanation for what happened?" Dumbledore asked them. They nodded their heads vigorously.
"I regret to say that I cannot tell you how it happened. I will tell you why it happened, who is responsible, and some other things that you would like to know," Dumbledore said. He then began to speak.
"I think that you all know who is responsible, none other than Hogwarts' own Tom Riddle. Yes, Voldemort seems to be holding something against this school since he graduated. Though its true Durmstrang would have better suited him, he would not be as powerful as he is if he did not go to Hogwarts.
"As you all know, Voldemort is a very dangerous wizard. He is incredibly brilliant, and unfortunately, he uses his brilliance against the world he was born to. His parents went to this school, many years ago, and he holds such a hatred for them that he automatically dislikes anything that has to do with them. Hogwarts is included in this.
"Voldemort thinks that the wizarding world will be better off without muggle-borns, and he's attempted several times to rid Hogwarts of them. He has never fully succeeded. Lily, you are a muggle born, and Mundungus, you have personal reasons for him to dislike you. That brings two of you reasons to be disliked by Voldemort. And James and Natasha, you two are most likely disliked because you associate with them. Voldemort is trying to scare muggle-borns out of Hogwarts, once and for all. You just happened to be the students he used to show exactly how strongly he felt about it.
"I was the one who shouted the counter curse. I sensed that something was wrong. Tom Riddle and I, we have connections you see. I walked outside onto the school balcony and saw what was happening. The other students were pressing their faces against the windows, panicking. The rest of the staff was trying to think of what to do.
"I was also in a state of panic. Then I remembered a little counter curse an old friend taught me. The charm, you see, causes everything to go back to the way it was before the original curse was used. It was the perfect counter curse for the time.
That is all that I can tell you, for now. I will, however, tell you more details later. The school has had a memory charm put on, so no students will be pressing you for details."
"Wow," Lily said, feeling kind of dizzy after taking the load of information.
"I never thought that any sort of thing like this would happen to me…" James started.
"I'll never be able to feel completely safe at Hogwarts again!" Natasha said.
"Well, that's the sort of thing that would not be expected to occur on a sunny day," Mundungus surmised. The other three shot him strange looks.
"It's true! That day was particularly sunny!" Mundungus defended.
"I must return to my office now. You all may stay here for a few more hours, but then I insist that you return to your dorms and try to continue your lives.
It will not be easy to get over this, but you must try. It will not be the worst we see from Voldemort. You for have experienced something that few in the future will ever hear one sentence about," Dumbledore said. His eyes held that all too familiar twinkle that always meant he knew something the rest of the world didn't.
He turned and left the room, his violet cloak swishing behind him.
"Get over it? That will never happen!" Natasha said, groaning.
"You can try. Think about it, you'll be prepared if it ever happens again. Not like I think it will, but with You-Know-Who around, you can just never be too sure," Lily said.
"Plus, it will make one heck of a story to tell your kids someday," Mundungus said.
"Yeah, there is nothing a kid loves more than a juicy, deep, dark secret," James said, very confident in his answer.
"Yes, and everyone has a few deep, dark secrets. Such as, maybe, who they're madly in love with…Right Lily?" Mundungus said, smiling slyly.
Lily's reply was throwing a pillow across the room and hitting him in the face.
"What on earth are you lot doing? If you're feeling that healthy, you must be healthy enough to return to your dorms," the nurse said as she strode into the room.
With a blushing face, Lily got up, closed the curtains around her bed, got dressed, and left the hospital wing with the others.
"Great one, Lily, just get us kicked out of the wing, why don't you!" Mundungus said jokingly.
"Oh, why don't you go choke on a chess piece!" Lily said.
"Not a bad idea. Hey, Potter, want to play a game of chess?" Mundungus asked.
"I don't know. I'm kind of, well, I lack any sort of feeble talent whatsoever in playing chess. It's so bad, it'll probably be passed on to generations," James said.
Lily sighed. Mundungus saw her roll her eyes.
"Well, you've got to be better than me. I can play Chinese checkers, but I'm a failure at chess," Lily said.
"Oh, so, do you want to play then? I might finally beat you at something…" Mundungus said.
Lily grinned. "Mundungus, you're my favorite Chinese checkers partner, and you lose wonderfully, but you're just too good at chess for me. You'd win before the game started! Unless I conceded," Lily said.
"Well then, lets play!" Mundungus said.
Lily tilted her head and looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she grinned.
"You're on!"
~End of Flashback~
Curtains Close!
Author's Note: Well, that chapter was refreshing. I love writing about Harry and his crew, really I do, but this was a nice little change. I'm not sure if there will be any more flashbacks. You may be wondering what the heck the flashback has to do with Terces, but it was a memory of Mundungus Fletcher, so, yeah. It'll all make sense in the end! I swear! I know exactly how this story is going to end; I even know the last paragraph! Believe me, the ending's going to be awesome!
Words of Wisdom: Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end
~"Closing Time"
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I love you all!
Ciao! {Yes, I know that Ciao actually means hello, but that's just a small obstacle in my road of joy and happiness! In other words, I just don't care. Don't tell the Italians I said that.}
~Starry