A/N- You all better appreciate this chapter, I worked hard on it for a
long time, revising and making sure that it fits all your requirements!!
Sorry It took so long!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chapter 9- Dusk and Dawn
Sirius, James, Lily, Ari, Remus, Peter, Lis and Torii were waiting in the hospital wing anxiously by Cat's bed. The cream colored walls were lost and the shadows from the candles that were lit played games as they danced across the wall. There were a few pictures hung on the wall, each of it's inhabitants shook there head sadly, avoiding the students eyes.
Cat's bed was the only one occupied. A dozen other beds were made in the same fashion, lined up along the wall.
Sirius looked entirely lost. Pacing the floor by Cat's bed, his shoulders dropped and his eyes seemed sunken with tiredness. "I should have been able to save her sooner!" He exclaimed finally.
"Don't be hard on your self, Sirius," Torii answered, reaching to places a hand on his shoulder and trying to ease his anxiousness. "You did better than we could have done."
Lily reached past the pale white curtains that separated them from Cat. She touched Cat's face softly with one finger. "She's so cold." Lily whispered. The others turned to look at her, sliding the curtains back on the steel frame. Indeed she was. Her whole body seemed limp and lifeless, her face was stone-like though, and twisted in a painful expression. Cat wore a lights blue hospital gown that seemed to be the same color as her face, which, Sirius also noted, could not hide her figure. "Will she be ok?" Ari asked Madam Pompfry who was standing by Cat's face and smoothing her ruffled hair away from her face.
"Oh she should be. She's a very strong girl, you know. She may not look it, but she's strong inside. She should be ok. In time." Madam Pompfry comforted. She walked back into her office, taking the medicine she had been applying to Cat's face.
"In time? But what about Christmas? And the club!" Lis said, shocked.
"What club?" Remus asked. "Oh, we were just planning to go to the Three Broomsticks on Boxing Day night," Lis babbled on.
"You guys should come too!" Ari offered.
"Are... you ok Lily?" James asked hesitantly, ignoring the others chatter.
Lily sighed. "She has just saved my life, James, not really Snape's. It seems that she does this often." Her lipped trembled. "What are we going to do if she doesn't wake up?"
Though she covered her face with her hands, James noticed a few tears leaking down her cheeks. "She will wake up Lily, she has to." James said desperately.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Eve of the fourth day, and the night of the 23rd of December seemed even darker and colder that it had been for a long time. Just before dinner, Madam Pompfry had sent the students out to dinner, assuring them that she would let them know if Cat's situation changed.
Christmas was everywhere. Hogwarts was covered in bright candles, holly, decorated Christmas trees, and winter wreaths. Choirs of wood nymphs sung and the snow covered the ground like vanilla icing to complete the birthday cake of Christ.
The happiness and cheer was limited though, for the whole school. While the Slytherins pretended that there was nothing amiss, they were never jubilant and cheerful people so it didn't make much difference. While the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws were happy, even they could not forget the Lake Incident, which was how everyone referred to it. They talked in whispers, glancing at the Gryffendors furtively, though that could also be about the way Lily and James were sitting next to each other. Usually they were sitting at opposite ends and the still glared at each other. Especially Lily.
The Gryffendors were by far the most miserable. All of them were relatively close, especially, the older ones. What had happened to Cat was a living reminder of the dangers and misery that the world possessed.
To Lily, it seemed that even the teachers seemed a little forlorn. Professor Dumbledore was not at dinner for some strange reason, something that had not happened for several years. Some of the teachers looked a little jittery and Professor Slovene looked plain amused.
No one ate much at the Gryffendor table, except for Herring Pulupo, a small, round third year half-blood who ate gallons, rain or shine, Advent or Lent. It made no difference to him and he refused to let good food go to waste. This he told to his emotional Spanish year mate, Jauna when she ask him reproachfully, how he could be so cruel.
After dinner, the Gryffendors retired to their common room. Most of them went to bed, read , took showers and did what they normally did every evening. Lis, Torii and Ari went straight to bed. Remus took a shower and remained in it for three quarters of an hour. Sirius disappeared, but he had done that so often these last few days that no one thought much of it.
Lily lingered in the common room with James, pretending to read but really watching as he polished him broomstick. By the time he had finished, Lily's brain had memorized exactly what he did and in what order too.
First, he carefully set it down on the plush red carpet, next, he proceeded in plucking the stray twigs that stuck out at odd angles. He then turned it lovingly, stared at it for a second and them picked up the polish and the brush and dipped the brush in the polish and turned towards the broom.................... "Something the matter Lils?" Startled, Lily looked up from her gaze on James broom to realize that he was watching her with great amusement. I must have been staring! Lily thought.
James stood up and stretched. Lily forced herself to look away from his chest and towards the flickering fire across the room. Letting her gaze wander, she looked at the comfortable armchairs that sat near the fire, the sleepy portraits hanging on the red painted wall, the plush red carpet and various sized wooded tables. Hanging above the mantle place, behind two large yellow candles hung a huge woven tapestry of a griffin backed by red and yellow stripes.
"No one here." James said. He was still watching Lily with a quirky smile on his face. It was then that Lily realized that she, Lily Evans was alone in the same room with James Potter at 11:30 at night.
Lily looked back at James shocked. She blushed heavily and looked around for something to do. James sat down beside her on the couch. "Wish Cat would get better." James said. He looked sideways at Lily.
"Yeah. She must mean a lot to you, Pott...I mean James."
"We were best friends from the time we were born. Always getting in trouble." James let out a short chuckle and shook his head.
Lily was intrigued. Forgetting about how embarrassed she had been, she pressed James for more information.
"Well, I remember the time we all went camping with the other families on our street. The Longbottoms, Starrlings, Potters, Merediths and a bunch of other families. We were about to have dinner and Aunt Rachel was calling us to come to the table. We all came except for Cat and Darren Meredith. A few seconds later, we heard a scream and Darren came running out of the forest saying, "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!'".
"What happened?"
"Then Cat came running out with her head on fire! Mrs. Meredith sent Darren into the tent and began yelling at him. Aunt Rachel used some sort of spell to grow Cat's hair back. "
"What else happened to you guys?"
"Well, I remember one time when......"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sirius slunk quickly towards the Hospital Wing through the dark corridors, cursing the fact that he had not thought to take James' invisibility cloak. The halls were barely lit with think tapered candles which cast ghostly shadows. He slowed down as he neared the wide stone entrance. Pausing, Sirius heard several hushed voices.
".....unfortunate event.....sure...recover quickly....waken.." He heard Madam Pompfry say.
"..spell...soon.....lessons." Another voice said. Professor McGonagall.
"..efficiently....talk to students...seriousness....well." Inching forward, Sirius saw Madam Pompfry, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore standing by Cat's bed.
Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore turned around and noticed Sirius. "Ahhh, Mr.Black." He gestured that Sirius come forth. "Here to see Miss Starrling?"
As Sirius walked up to the teachers, he contemplated whether he would need to tell them what really happened down by the lake and whether he would get another detention for being out of bed.
Dumbledore placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder and steered him towards Cat. She still had not awakened and was covered in many thick wool blankets. Madam Pompfry was fussing with the blankets and adding a hot bedpan under the sheets. Frowning slightly, he ventured a question.
"How come she still hasn't woken up?"
Smoothing Cat's hair, Madam Pompfry answered his question. "Cat is unconscious right now from the shock of the cold. She was in the freezing water much too long."
"But isn't there a spell to wake her up?" Sirius inquired.
"Actually, we were just discussing that, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said mildly. "It's best to try all natural remedies first, such as creams, warmth and such." Madam Pompfry explained.
"But Christmas is coming and we would rather not have her here all alone and still asleep for Christmas," McGonagall countered. "Her parents have been notified, but because of the bad weather, they have not been able to come. They have placed their full trust in us."
"So there you have it." Dumbledore told Sirius.
"Sir?" Sirius did not quite understand.
"We will have to bring Miss. Starrling back in to consciousness for Christmas."
"Right now in fact." Added McGonagall.
"1.....2......3.....Eneverate!"
Slowly, Sirius saw Cat twitch slightly and slowly open her eyes.
"Hullo." She said cheerfully.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shall I end it here? Yes. I think I shall end it on a happy moment. I am warning you that I think now is the time that I will pause for a second and also revise the other chapters. I think that my own writing as progressed as I write more and more chapters and so my beginning chapters don't quite match the style that I write in now.
I also have found that everything is getting a bit sad, so the next few chapters will probably be meaningless, Christmas cheer and fluff. I don't know for sure though. Here are a few hints about what is to come in the next few chapters:
the Christmas Ball the Boxing Day party at Hogsmead. Christmas Presents A fight between Lily and James (again,lol.) Remus' secret. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
Here are my wonderful and faithful reviewers, I don't know what I would do without them:
Mini Padfoot- Hey Padfoot. Back again!! What happened to your brother? Sorry about asking, you don't have to tell if you don't want to. Hope you like this chapter, thank you for reviewing and for giving me the courage to post this chapter and not hine in my wardrobe!
SOBs 4 Sirius 223 – Hello. Thank you for reviewing my fic, I admit that it is not the best story. Thanks for telling me which characters you liked best, I will definitely included more of them.
Aks100- I know. Poor Cat. And me too. I'm the one writing about how beat up she is getting!! Once this is over, I swear on pain of death that I will give Cat a break and make some one else suffer. Remus is next on my list of characters to torture..... Yes, Yes, Lily and James will share some romantic and embarrassing moments in this chapter.....but we shall see how long it lasts.
bessie1- Yes, you are absolutely right. I think that when I started this story for fun, I based Lily's friends on my friends, of which there are many, ( Ha! I've got lot's of friends! I've got lot's of ...never mind. ) and I wanted to include all of them. My favorite character is Cat, so mostly, she is in every scene and the story is based more on her, unintentionally. I wrote another story based just on Lily and James, but it needs much revision and work. Thank you so much for giving me those tips, I know that my spelling is bad too. I am working on fixing the story, and I love any comments that people can give me so I can improve. No offense taken. Hope you like this chapter!
So you might not get another chapter for a little while, my next priority is my Tamora Pierce fic, then revision, though that shouldn't take long. I will revise the first 2 chapters, then put chapter 10 up. The revise the next 2 chapters, etc.
If you have any suggestions, I would really appreciate them! Let me know what you think,
Smile!
Rhia
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Chapter 9- Dusk and Dawn
Sirius, James, Lily, Ari, Remus, Peter, Lis and Torii were waiting in the hospital wing anxiously by Cat's bed. The cream colored walls were lost and the shadows from the candles that were lit played games as they danced across the wall. There were a few pictures hung on the wall, each of it's inhabitants shook there head sadly, avoiding the students eyes.
Cat's bed was the only one occupied. A dozen other beds were made in the same fashion, lined up along the wall.
Sirius looked entirely lost. Pacing the floor by Cat's bed, his shoulders dropped and his eyes seemed sunken with tiredness. "I should have been able to save her sooner!" He exclaimed finally.
"Don't be hard on your self, Sirius," Torii answered, reaching to places a hand on his shoulder and trying to ease his anxiousness. "You did better than we could have done."
Lily reached past the pale white curtains that separated them from Cat. She touched Cat's face softly with one finger. "She's so cold." Lily whispered. The others turned to look at her, sliding the curtains back on the steel frame. Indeed she was. Her whole body seemed limp and lifeless, her face was stone-like though, and twisted in a painful expression. Cat wore a lights blue hospital gown that seemed to be the same color as her face, which, Sirius also noted, could not hide her figure. "Will she be ok?" Ari asked Madam Pompfry who was standing by Cat's face and smoothing her ruffled hair away from her face.
"Oh she should be. She's a very strong girl, you know. She may not look it, but she's strong inside. She should be ok. In time." Madam Pompfry comforted. She walked back into her office, taking the medicine she had been applying to Cat's face.
"In time? But what about Christmas? And the club!" Lis said, shocked.
"What club?" Remus asked. "Oh, we were just planning to go to the Three Broomsticks on Boxing Day night," Lis babbled on.
"You guys should come too!" Ari offered.
"Are... you ok Lily?" James asked hesitantly, ignoring the others chatter.
Lily sighed. "She has just saved my life, James, not really Snape's. It seems that she does this often." Her lipped trembled. "What are we going to do if she doesn't wake up?"
Though she covered her face with her hands, James noticed a few tears leaking down her cheeks. "She will wake up Lily, she has to." James said desperately.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Eve of the fourth day, and the night of the 23rd of December seemed even darker and colder that it had been for a long time. Just before dinner, Madam Pompfry had sent the students out to dinner, assuring them that she would let them know if Cat's situation changed.
Christmas was everywhere. Hogwarts was covered in bright candles, holly, decorated Christmas trees, and winter wreaths. Choirs of wood nymphs sung and the snow covered the ground like vanilla icing to complete the birthday cake of Christ.
The happiness and cheer was limited though, for the whole school. While the Slytherins pretended that there was nothing amiss, they were never jubilant and cheerful people so it didn't make much difference. While the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws were happy, even they could not forget the Lake Incident, which was how everyone referred to it. They talked in whispers, glancing at the Gryffendors furtively, though that could also be about the way Lily and James were sitting next to each other. Usually they were sitting at opposite ends and the still glared at each other. Especially Lily.
The Gryffendors were by far the most miserable. All of them were relatively close, especially, the older ones. What had happened to Cat was a living reminder of the dangers and misery that the world possessed.
To Lily, it seemed that even the teachers seemed a little forlorn. Professor Dumbledore was not at dinner for some strange reason, something that had not happened for several years. Some of the teachers looked a little jittery and Professor Slovene looked plain amused.
No one ate much at the Gryffendor table, except for Herring Pulupo, a small, round third year half-blood who ate gallons, rain or shine, Advent or Lent. It made no difference to him and he refused to let good food go to waste. This he told to his emotional Spanish year mate, Jauna when she ask him reproachfully, how he could be so cruel.
After dinner, the Gryffendors retired to their common room. Most of them went to bed, read , took showers and did what they normally did every evening. Lis, Torii and Ari went straight to bed. Remus took a shower and remained in it for three quarters of an hour. Sirius disappeared, but he had done that so often these last few days that no one thought much of it.
Lily lingered in the common room with James, pretending to read but really watching as he polished him broomstick. By the time he had finished, Lily's brain had memorized exactly what he did and in what order too.
First, he carefully set it down on the plush red carpet, next, he proceeded in plucking the stray twigs that stuck out at odd angles. He then turned it lovingly, stared at it for a second and them picked up the polish and the brush and dipped the brush in the polish and turned towards the broom.................... "Something the matter Lils?" Startled, Lily looked up from her gaze on James broom to realize that he was watching her with great amusement. I must have been staring! Lily thought.
James stood up and stretched. Lily forced herself to look away from his chest and towards the flickering fire across the room. Letting her gaze wander, she looked at the comfortable armchairs that sat near the fire, the sleepy portraits hanging on the red painted wall, the plush red carpet and various sized wooded tables. Hanging above the mantle place, behind two large yellow candles hung a huge woven tapestry of a griffin backed by red and yellow stripes.
"No one here." James said. He was still watching Lily with a quirky smile on his face. It was then that Lily realized that she, Lily Evans was alone in the same room with James Potter at 11:30 at night.
Lily looked back at James shocked. She blushed heavily and looked around for something to do. James sat down beside her on the couch. "Wish Cat would get better." James said. He looked sideways at Lily.
"Yeah. She must mean a lot to you, Pott...I mean James."
"We were best friends from the time we were born. Always getting in trouble." James let out a short chuckle and shook his head.
Lily was intrigued. Forgetting about how embarrassed she had been, she pressed James for more information.
"Well, I remember the time we all went camping with the other families on our street. The Longbottoms, Starrlings, Potters, Merediths and a bunch of other families. We were about to have dinner and Aunt Rachel was calling us to come to the table. We all came except for Cat and Darren Meredith. A few seconds later, we heard a scream and Darren came running out of the forest saying, "I didn't do it, I didn't do it!'".
"What happened?"
"Then Cat came running out with her head on fire! Mrs. Meredith sent Darren into the tent and began yelling at him. Aunt Rachel used some sort of spell to grow Cat's hair back. "
"What else happened to you guys?"
"Well, I remember one time when......"
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sirius slunk quickly towards the Hospital Wing through the dark corridors, cursing the fact that he had not thought to take James' invisibility cloak. The halls were barely lit with think tapered candles which cast ghostly shadows. He slowed down as he neared the wide stone entrance. Pausing, Sirius heard several hushed voices.
".....unfortunate event.....sure...recover quickly....waken.." He heard Madam Pompfry say.
"..spell...soon.....lessons." Another voice said. Professor McGonagall.
"..efficiently....talk to students...seriousness....well." Inching forward, Sirius saw Madam Pompfry, Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore standing by Cat's bed.
Suddenly, Professor Dumbledore turned around and noticed Sirius. "Ahhh, Mr.Black." He gestured that Sirius come forth. "Here to see Miss Starrling?"
As Sirius walked up to the teachers, he contemplated whether he would need to tell them what really happened down by the lake and whether he would get another detention for being out of bed.
Dumbledore placed a hand on Sirius' shoulder and steered him towards Cat. She still had not awakened and was covered in many thick wool blankets. Madam Pompfry was fussing with the blankets and adding a hot bedpan under the sheets. Frowning slightly, he ventured a question.
"How come she still hasn't woken up?"
Smoothing Cat's hair, Madam Pompfry answered his question. "Cat is unconscious right now from the shock of the cold. She was in the freezing water much too long."
"But isn't there a spell to wake her up?" Sirius inquired.
"Actually, we were just discussing that, Mr. Black." Dumbledore said mildly. "It's best to try all natural remedies first, such as creams, warmth and such." Madam Pompfry explained.
"But Christmas is coming and we would rather not have her here all alone and still asleep for Christmas," McGonagall countered. "Her parents have been notified, but because of the bad weather, they have not been able to come. They have placed their full trust in us."
"So there you have it." Dumbledore told Sirius.
"Sir?" Sirius did not quite understand.
"We will have to bring Miss. Starrling back in to consciousness for Christmas."
"Right now in fact." Added McGonagall.
"1.....2......3.....Eneverate!"
Slowly, Sirius saw Cat twitch slightly and slowly open her eyes.
"Hullo." She said cheerfully.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shall I end it here? Yes. I think I shall end it on a happy moment. I am warning you that I think now is the time that I will pause for a second and also revise the other chapters. I think that my own writing as progressed as I write more and more chapters and so my beginning chapters don't quite match the style that I write in now.
I also have found that everything is getting a bit sad, so the next few chapters will probably be meaningless, Christmas cheer and fluff. I don't know for sure though. Here are a few hints about what is to come in the next few chapters:
the Christmas Ball the Boxing Day party at Hogsmead. Christmas Presents A fight between Lily and James (again,lol.) Remus' secret. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.
Here are my wonderful and faithful reviewers, I don't know what I would do without them:
Mini Padfoot- Hey Padfoot. Back again!! What happened to your brother? Sorry about asking, you don't have to tell if you don't want to. Hope you like this chapter, thank you for reviewing and for giving me the courage to post this chapter and not hine in my wardrobe!
SOBs 4 Sirius 223 – Hello. Thank you for reviewing my fic, I admit that it is not the best story. Thanks for telling me which characters you liked best, I will definitely included more of them.
Aks100- I know. Poor Cat. And me too. I'm the one writing about how beat up she is getting!! Once this is over, I swear on pain of death that I will give Cat a break and make some one else suffer. Remus is next on my list of characters to torture..... Yes, Yes, Lily and James will share some romantic and embarrassing moments in this chapter.....but we shall see how long it lasts.
bessie1- Yes, you are absolutely right. I think that when I started this story for fun, I based Lily's friends on my friends, of which there are many, ( Ha! I've got lot's of friends! I've got lot's of ...never mind. ) and I wanted to include all of them. My favorite character is Cat, so mostly, she is in every scene and the story is based more on her, unintentionally. I wrote another story based just on Lily and James, but it needs much revision and work. Thank you so much for giving me those tips, I know that my spelling is bad too. I am working on fixing the story, and I love any comments that people can give me so I can improve. No offense taken. Hope you like this chapter!
So you might not get another chapter for a little while, my next priority is my Tamora Pierce fic, then revision, though that shouldn't take long. I will revise the first 2 chapters, then put chapter 10 up. The revise the next 2 chapters, etc.
If you have any suggestions, I would really appreciate them! Let me know what you think,
Smile!
Rhia