Chapter Nine

Drawings and Divinations

If they had seen little of Lily during her previous detentions, they saw even less of her now. She was moved out of Hermione's dormitory room and into another one. Whenever they saw her she was either in class (sitting as far away from the three of them as the room would allow), or in the common room studying behind a huge pile of books. She looked up at them once or twice on those occasions but her eyes would fill with tears and she had to look away.

One Wednesday, Harry, Hermione and Ron were walking down towards the lake to waste the rest of the afternoon. The sun shone brightly overhead and beat down on their backs as they walked. Small groups of students were scattered across the grounds- sitting, lying back looking up at the sky or standing around talking. Voices and laughter drifted past them on the soft afternoon breeze.

"Let's go find some shade," Hermione suggested, and they veered off towards the trees. Harry crunched a leaf idly under his foot as he walked.

"Wonder how Lily is," he said glumly.

"Not good, by the look of all that homework she's got. And she's still doing detentions with Snape." Ron said, and looked at them ruefully. "Not much of a life, is it?"

"I still think it's unbelievable she wasn't expelled," Hermione said. "After what she did to Snape..."

"It's my fault," Harry said through clenched teeth. They both looked at him, startled.

"What?" Hermione gasped.

"She did it because Malfoy threatened to kill me. And I think he was serious."

"Come on," Ron said in disbelief. "Malfoy's a loser, but he wouldn't kill anybody."

"Yeah? How would you feel if I sent your dad to Azkaban?"

Ron looked uncertainly at Hermione. "Well..." he started, and then realized Harry's point. "Ok, I'd be pretty bloody angry, but I wouldn't kill anyone."

Hermione glanced at Ron unhappily. "Well, think about it... Malfoy's put Harry in danger plenty of times... and he does hate you, Harry... it wouldn't be that far a stretch."

Harry, Hermione and Ron had walked into the shade of the trees bordering the school grounds, and through the thick trunks he could see the lake. Sunlight danced across its surface, reflecting painfully back between two trees and into his eyes. He squinted, and glanced casually down at the lakeside near to the forest's edge... and frowned. There was a girl standing next to a large, flat rock down by the water's edge, back turned to them, her wavy blonde hair glowing golden in the sunlight...

"Hey... isn't that Lily?" he said loudly, and then the sun flared off the water and into his eyes for a moment, making him squinch his eyes shut.

Ron and Hermione both stopped, and turned around to look in the direction he was facing. "Where?" Hermione asked.

"There, down by the..." Harry stopped. He had rubbed his eyes to stop them watering. When he looked back down at the rock by water's edge, there was no girl next to it.

"Um...there's no-one there," Ron said. Harry hurried past them and stepped out of the thin forest onto the sandy bank where the rock sat. He could see all the way up to the castle above the forest from here, but the place had been invisible from the other side of the trees.

Then he looked closer at the rock. There was an open book sitting on its smooth surface, the pages laid out flat in the baking heat of the sun. A pencil was balanced on the edge of the rock. As he watched, it rolled and tipped over the edge onto the ground. As if someone had dropped it there moments before.

Again he glanced around the little shelf of land, which was bordered on three sides by trees and on the other by the lake. The girl wouldn't have had time to get under cover. He had only looked away for a second.

"What's that?" Hermione asked, stepping up beside him and staring at the book. Harry reached down and picked it up slowly. It was a book of drawings. On one page was a sketch of Aurian Finchley, from the shoulders up. Harry thought it was superb, even down to the individual strands of hair, which faded out of sight towards the bottom of the page. On the opposite side was a drawing of himself. Hermione gasped audibly when she saw it. Harry looked down at himself, feeling strange. It was like looking into a mirror, except the Harry on this page was smiling.

"Wow, those're brilliant!" Ron exclaimed, taking hold of one side of the book and flipping through it. "Are there any of me in there?"

Hermione ignored him and glanced at Harry curiously. "This is definitely Lily's book," she said, and he nodded. Ron turned to the first page and it was blank, but on the inside front cover there was a signature.

"Lily Flanagan," he read.

Harry looked at them both. "She was here," he said forcefully. "I saw her."

"Ok, we believe you Harry," Hermione said placatingly. "But where did she go?"

"Anyway, she's supposed to be restricted to the common room," Ron said. "There'll be hell to pay if anyone finds out she's been wandering around."

Hermione looked from one to the other, thinking. Then, unable to come up with a theory, she said, "We better go back. We should bring that too," she added, pointing at the book.

Friday of that week they had Divinations. Lily had been a favourite of Trelawney's ever since their first Divinations lesson. She usually made every effort to involve Lily in class demonstrations and spent most of the class crowding next to her, offering encouragements and praise. Lavender and Parvati now competed with Lily (though the competition was one-sided, certainly Lily didn't impressed by all the attention she was getting) for Trelawney's appraisal.

On Friday afternoon they crowded into the Divinations classroom and took up spots in whatever chairs were free. Lily was sitting by herself in a chair close to the window. She looked miserable.

Their task that day was to scry into crystals, and to try and discern any omens that they saw. Trelawney fluttered among the students like an overlarge butterfly, her countless jewels clinking together as she moved. Inevitably she would complete a tour of the classroom and then come back to Lily, who had partnered with a short-haired Hufflepuff girl. She leaned over and spoke to Lily. Over the noise of the other students, Harry couldn't hear what she was saying, as he was sitting with Ron on the other side of the room.

"Ok, what do you see?" He asked Ron distractedly.

Ron placed his fingers on his temples and gazed deeply and seriously into the crystal. "I see... the Chudley Cannons winning the Quidditch World Cup..."

Harry was too distracted to laugh, but he smiled at Ron. "I can't write that down."

"Why not?" Ron said, offended. "It's not that impossible."

Harry glanced over at Lily and Professor Trelawney again, who was now kneeling down beside their table, gazing into the crystal. Suddenly Trelawney began to speak, but it was in a voice much deeper and louder than her own, which Harry could here all the way across the room. At the sound of it the other students fell silent.

"I see her," Trelawney boomed, still looking into the crystal ball. Lily had flinched back in her chair. "She's at Hogwarts. The one I seek. The one whose powers I must posess. She's at Hogwarts. She's at Hogwarrrrrrtssssssssss..." this last word became drawn out and stretched, distorting the booming voice that was coming from Professor Trelawney and yet could not possibly be made by her... the sound of it filled Harry's head and he scrunched his eyes shut just as a lightning-bolt of pain shot through his forehead.

"NO!" Lily screamed, and Harry opened his eyes in time to see her leap up from her chair and run across the room, swing herself down through the trapdoor and out of sight. Professor Trelawney was still kneeling on the floor, and had fallen silent. Her head tilted forward slowly onto her chest and then suddenly jerked up. She looked around, blinking.

"Where did Miss Flanagan go?" she asked breathily, but everyone was still too shocked to answer.