Chapter 28: - ...There's fire

"WE'RE TRAPED! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!" Dymphna screamed

"BE QUIET!" Amanda yelled at Dymphna who had already burst into tears at the thought that she was trapped in a smoke and flame filled inferno.

"No body panic!" Amanda raged as more and more girls screamed and wailed about the futility of their lives

"Everyone make for the top dorm!" Miriam and Lily both yelled above the din, surprisingly and much to Amanda's fury all the girls obeyed.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked Lily as she, Amy and Dymphna raced up the stairs beside side her. Miriam and Mac had now been lost from Lily's view in the ensuing throng of bodies that jostled the first years up the stone steps towards the fourth year's dormitory at the very top of the spiral stairwell.

"Where's Miriam?" Lily asked to no one in particular as she frantically looked around the masses of older girls trying to locate her,

"I don't see her!" Alice called as she pushed Lily up the stairs and thrust Lily's wand into her hand,

"But she was right next to me!" Lily said as she slipped her wand into the waist band of the pyjama bottoms

"She's probably already there!" Amy yelled as both she and Dymphna grabbed hold of Lily's wrists and pulled her towards the fourth year's dormitory.

"Everyone head to the top dorm!" Lily could hear Amanda now yelling as she adopted the idea as though it was her own. But Lily didn't care what she did care about was the fact that she couldn't see Miriam anywhere, Lily knew Miriam's character very well even through the girls had only been friends for a few months, but Miriam wouldn't have left her friends sides unless something serious had happened, especially not in a situation like this.

"Is everyone here?" Amanda asked. Having been the first person to reach the safety of the fourth year's dorm Amanda was waiting besides the dormitory door poised to close it.

"Mi isn't here!" Lily voiced but Amanda ignored her,

"Are we all here? Are we all safe?" Lily stood in a sea of nods as the older girls agreed that everyone was now safe

"MIRIAM ISN'T HERE!!!" Alice raged. It was the first time that Lily had heard Alice raise her voice to anyone who wasn't her brother, usually Alice was the kind and caring type but now, Alice was quite scary Lily thought with a hint of glee.

"Look Potter, Artemis had plenty of time to get here and we have to block this door before we all choke!" some of the older girls agreed and Lily was sickened to hear one of them mumble that they'd all be doing the Artemis family a favour by getting rid of the diseased blood.

"IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR MI YOU'D ALL HAVE BEEN DEAD BY NOW!" Alice raged even more as she strode towards Amanda her hands on her hips and her lips narrowed and Lily smiled wickedly as Amanda blanched from Alice's rage,

"WE OWE HER OUR LIVES!" Alice continued "SO I THINK THAT GIVING HER A FEW EXTRA SECONDS TO GET HERE WOULD BE AN EASY TRADE OFF!" Some of the older girls moaned in disagreement, they obviously hadn't forgotten how Gryffindor had lost so many house points in the first week of term, Lily felt even more sick that they would be willing to let someone perish for some stupid house points.

"I'm going to look for her!" Lily announced, as she tried to resist thinking about why Miriam may not have arrived at the dormitory,

"NO!" Amanda yelled "No one is going to look for anyone!" and with that Amanda preceded to close the solid dormitory door.

"NO!!!" Lily, Alice, Dymphna and Amy all yelled as each girl rushed forwards pulling their wands out and aiming them at Amanda,

'The world was turning mad!' Lily thought as she tried to hold her shaking wand hand still amongst the screams and gasps from the older year girls who had quickly pressed themselves against the walls, obviously none of them had had the forethought that Alice had had of bringing their wands with them. What shocked Lily the most was her own boldness she had never drawn her wand against anyone before not even Bellatrix Black who some times deserved a good hexing, but Lily knew that this was different, if Amanda closed the door then Miriam's fate would be sealed. Looking from Alice, Amy and Dymphna Lily knew that one way or another that the fourth year dormitory door would remain open.

"I'm going to look for her!" Lily said to her fellow first years "I'll be back as quick as I can" Lily had barely registered her friends nods when suddenly the half closed door burst open, revealing Miriam covered head to foot in soot and under her now blackened face her skin looked very pale.

"I can't find Mac!" Miriam exclaimed "is he here?"

"Who's Mac?" Amanda asked trying to act concerned but as soon as Miriam revealed that Mac was her pet Amanda's usual disgruntled demeanour about everything that concerned the first years was now back, "Forget about your stupid cat you shouldn't have let go of him!" But this remake sprang a torrent of screams and gasps from the other girls who had all left their own pets in their smoke filled dorms, now every student in the room wanted to search for their pets.

"No one is going anywhere!" Amanda raged "Their just animals you can get new ones!" this made the other girls cry out in anger and Lily was sure that if any of the older girls had brought their wands then it would just be the first years who would have their wands drawn and aimed at Amanda,

"Don't worry!" Miriam coughed as she stepped in front of Amanda blocking her from the angry glares of the older girls "I collect them all together, I've put them in the dorm below us they'll be fine. I've cleared the room of smoke and used the everlasting seal charm on the door so that no more smoke will get into the room, that's why I was the last to get back here, they'll be perfectly safe" The older girls breathed easy, and Amanda finally closed the door while Alice sealed it using the everlasting seal charm. Miriam, Lily and Alice sank into the nearest bed as Amanda began to direct the other girls in opening the dormitories windows and instructed others use the bed sheets to block any other cracks in the walls and door frame.

Lily watched Miriam in silence as the noise of the other girls faded into the background.

"I can't believe I left him!" Miriam mumbled as she unsuccessfully fought back the tears, as she pulled her keens into her chest clutching them tightly, "I only put him down for a second so that I could catch Drusilla's' Puffskein!!!"

"I'm sure he'll be fine, Mi" Alice said reassuringly as she put her arms around Miriam "He's as resilient as his owner" Alice said laughing slightly as she hugged Miriam closer. Lily said nothing; she knew that Miriam and Alice didn't believe a word of what Alice had just said but what else could be said? The truth? That Mac had most likely suffocated by now or worse that the little Kneazle had been caught in the blaze?

Lily couldn't think about this horror let alone to have it cross Miriam's mind even if Miriam may have already thought it.

Miriam nuzzled her knees as she tried to dry her eyes the result made both Lily and Alice laugh as Miriam had made a black smug on the hem of her already blackened white night dress and now looked as though she had two black eyes just like a panda Lily thought. The three friends sat silently on the bed their arms around each other as Dymphna and Amy help in Amanda's plans for fortifying of the room. Lily knew that it must have been hard for Miriam to have came to the dorm without Mac, Miriam loved her pet more then her own life even more then Quidditch and that, Lily thought was saying something.

Over ten minutes had passed and all the girls in the room were now sat, stood or perched on the floor or on any piece of furniture that they could find. The fourth years dorm was only slightly larger then the other dorms and like the other dorms this room was only meant to hold a maximum of five girls and not thirty five as it was doing now.

"We have to get out" Lily could hear several girls whining,

"We have to try to get some help" Others said,

"The teachers will help us" other girls said and others even suggested that they should tackle the problem themselves. But all of these suggestions were shot down and discarded; there was no where for all of the girls to go, and no one that they could alert from inside the dorm. The teachers never came into the common rooms and even for some strange reason that McGonagall did, she, like the Gryffindor boys would still be asleep and would not be awake for hours. This also presented other problems, what if the boys were in the same predicament as the girls?

The girls couldn't even help themselves as none of them knew any strong enough water charms that could dowse a full raging blaze and so the girls had no hope of helping the boys if they were in trouble as well.

"You're all acting as though it's all over!!!" Miriam called as she stood up from the bed drawing the attention of the entire room

"Well it is" fifth year Natalie Carr said "We can't go fetch any help can we? Unless you can fly!" at this some of the other girls laughed

"Your right I can't fly but a broom can!" Miriam said

"It's a good idea Mi" fourth year Karen Bates said "but none of us fourth year girls are allowed to join the Quidditch team"

"Fine but we have to do something!" Lily said in agreement with Miriam,

"Like what?" Amanda sneered "Climb on the roof and call for help?!"

"Why not?" Miriam said sounding serious as some of the older girls laughed

"To start off with we can't fit through the window!" Lauren Snicker, Amanda's best friend said not even attempting to hide her grin

"And secondly no one's crazy enough to climb out off the window anyway!" Amanda said. Lily cursed Amanda and Lauren for their jibs at Miriam, and lily knew that Miriam would have to make a come back,

"You might not be able to fit through the window but I'm not as fat as you two!" Miriam shot back as Amanda and Lauren gasped in outrage and Karen laughed openly "And as for the crazy part" Miriam continued "A family can't inbreed for centuries and not expect some sort insanity" at this most of the other girls in the room laughed,

"Your not going through that window Artemis!" Amanda raged

"Stop me then!" Miriam said simply as she made her way towards the nearest window as best as she could in the overly crowed room, Amanda made no attempted to stop Miriam as she climbed onto the small window seat, Hanging onto the inside of the window frame Miriam swung her legs onto the outside lintel

"Wait!" Lily suddenly found herself calling before she could stop herself "I'll come with you!" With wishes of good luck form Alice, Dymphna, Amy and a few other girls Lily followed Miriam's lead as she too managed to force herself through the ridiculously small window.

"You didn't have to come" Miriam said as she helped lily onto the even smaller ledge that ran around the base of the window and across the entire tower,

"I know but well...I couldn't leave you to go on your own" Lily said not even feeling anxious even though she thought that she might of.

"Thanks" Miriam said softly as the two girls clutched onto the even narrower ledge above them as they began to shuffle their way around the tower,

"Doesn't this scare you?" Lily asked as she tried to concentrated on anywhere but down at her feet,

"Not particularly I'm used to heights when I play Quidditch at home, the trick is just not to look down!"

'Great!' Lily thought why did Miriam had do go and say that?! Now that Miriam had told Lily not to look down she so desperately wanted to! Concentrating even harder on the wall in front of her lily shuffled along the ledge.

"S-So w-what's the plan?" Lily asked not really wanting to know the idiotic mess that she had now got herself into.

"We head to the boys top dorm it's the closest window to us, if their in the same predicament as the girls then we steal Edgar Bones' broom he's in the Quidditch team so he'll definitely have at least one broom in his room then we fly it down to get some help"

"Great!" Lily mumbled in amazement at how fast Miriam had come up with her plan. Lily and Miriam painfully made their way across the ledge, Lily's fingers were stinging and hurting as she grabbed onto the lintel above her head and her bare feet were still in pain from the blisters that she had received from the red hot stone steps. Why she had said she'd follow Miriam, Lily didn't know she just knew that if she managed to get out of this mess alive, today would be one day that she wasn't going to be writing home to her parents about. The girls finally reached the boys dorm window and typical to Lily's luck it was closed and locked and even though Miriam and Lily both knocked and banged as loud as they could no light was lit and no one came to the girls rescue,

"Maybe they weren't as lucky?" Lily said tearfully as she thought of Frank and Remus as she and Miriam pressed their faces against the cold frame as they peered into the dark dormitory room beyond,

"Either way" Miriam said callously "We're going in this way!" How? Lily was about to ask but she knew that this would have been stupid, pulling her wand out of her night dress Miriam used a charm to make the catch on the other side of the window rise and she pushed it open and climbed inside. Lily made to follow but her foot stepped onto a weakened stone and as it gave way under her feet lily lost her grip and she fell.

Lily didn't understand what had just happened, one second she was on the narrow ledge, the next she was plummeting to her death and the next she was suspended in mid air! Opening her eyes Lily could see the ground ten storeys below her and her stomach churned, it churned even more when she realised that she was now moving again, but this time upwards!

"Are you okay?" Lily heard Miriam's voice call, Lily thanked her lucky stars that Miriam's parents had insisted that Miriam and her brothers received privet schooling when they where at home and the it was higher then was usual topics aimed at their age groups, which meant that unlike the rest of the first years Miriam already knew how to cast the levitation spell perfectly.

Miriam helped Lily into the fourth year boys' dorm and without even checking on the boys in the room the two girls grabbed the broom that was resting on Edgar's trunk.

Miriam eased the broom out of the window and commanded it to hover. The Broom happily hovered below the window as Miriam climbed back out and then turned to help Lily climb on it behind her. Lily didn't like flying on brooms much, she dreaded the weekly flying lesions that the first years had each week, but Miriam unlike Lily loved flying it was what she lived for.

"Hold on tight" Miriam said to lily and she immediately put the Brooms nose down and sent them into a dive, Lily clung onto Miriam tightly as the wind blew through her hair and whipping icy cold on her legs as Miriam whooped for joy as the girls hurtled towards the ground. Lily screamed as Miriam finally pulled the broom out of its dive inches from the ground.

"Merlin I've missed having my own broom!" Miriam said smiling "I hate those stupid structured lessons that Podmore runs don't you?" Lily didn't say anything as she hung onto Miriam even tighter as Miriam spun the broom around and around turning the two girls over and over,

"I love it!" Miriam whooped again,

"That's fine" Lily mumbled in Miriam's ear "But let's not do that again ok?" Miriam laughed as she sent the broom flying towards the huge oak entrance doors and cast spell towards them so that they swung open. Miriam turned the head of the broom towards the marble staircase and then whizzed up the stairs and into the corridors beyond.

"Mi you've got to be joking right!?!" Lily called in alarm as Miriam tore up the narrow corridors and sharp bends,

"It's quicker then walking!" Miriam called blissfully, as she kicked the broom hard around a hairpin bend of the twisting stairs that led towards Professor McGonagall's quarters. Lily and Miriam knocked and knocked on the door to their head of houses quarters door but to no avail,

"We need to head back to the common room!" Lily said as she and Miriam climbed onto the broom again and Miriam sent the broom hurtling through the corridors again.

Lily didn't know what use she or Miriam would be, if they couldn't find any of the teachers but she guessed that they'd have deal with that when they reached the common room. Miriam yelled the common room password as they flew up the stairs opposite the fat ladies portrait, the fat lady screamed in horror as she flung herself open as Miriam refused to slow the pace of the broom,

"Well I never!" the fat lady huffed as the two girls hurtled into the common room.

"Merlin!" Miriam yelled as she suddenly pulled the head of the broom up grinding the two girls to a sudden and also for lily who was unaccustomed to riding brooms a painful stop.

"And what may I ask have you two been doing?" the voice of professor McGonagall said as she stood directly in front of the two girls, who had been inches away from being knocked to the ground if Miriam hadn't stopped when she had, Lily didn't quite understand what was going on as she looked around the common room, seeing all the Gryffindor students assembled in neat rows. Miriam and lily landed, both girls feeling utterly deflated and not knowing why as their head of house glared at them.

"As you both may or may not be aware" McGonagall sneered talking to both of the girls but looking directly at Miriam, "There has been a fire in this common room"

"We know we came to find you and-" Miriam started to say before she was shot down by a look from her head of house,

"Indeed I have heard" McGonagall said her lips narrowing "Miss Huge-Genghis has informed me all about what you have done Miss Artemis, Reckless endangerment of others lives" at this McGonagall's eyes shot towards lily before continuing back to Miriam "damage to school property, Theft of personally property," McGonagall said indicating the broom that Miriam was now holding in her hand "Unless I'm not aware of a change of rule that states that first years are now allowed to have brooms, if not then several cases for a disregard to school rules should be added to your record as well!"

"Record?" Miriam called looking shocked "but we-"

"Yes Miss Artemis your record-" McGonagall said ignoring Miriam

"Ha Minerva the dorms have been fully restored" called the soft voice of the headmaster as he emerged form the girls dormitory stairs,

"Thank you Albus" McGonagall said graciously before she lowered her voice and growled at the two girls in font of her "We shall continue this later Miss Artemis for now you will join your class mates" Miriam and Lily didn't need to be told twice as their head of house snatched the broom from Miriam as they both hurried towards the rest of the first years.

"As you are all well aware" Dumbledore said as he walked to the front of the groups of students "This incident could have been remarkably worse then a few burned tapestries, study tables, chairs and books that thankfully only resulted in the lose of your sleep." Dumbledore's words had set a warning bell ringing in lily's head as she quickly looked around the common room to see that the area of the common room that the fire had originated from was the area that Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice had been sitting at that night to discover what was wrong with Remus.

Lily's stomach churned as she realised what must have happened, they, Lily, Miriam, Frank and Alice had left the common room in such a hurry thinking that someone was about to enter the common room through the portrait hole that in their hast they must have left the candles still burning which had some how ignited the old and dried parchment of the books that they had stolen form the restricted section of the library.

Dumbledore's talk to the house continued as Madam Pomfrey attended to the students giving them all a solution to clear any smoke or ash from their air ways, Lily would have normally laughed to see the steam rising from the other students ears if the situation hadn't been so grave. Finally Dumbledore's speech ended by telling the students to be more careful and that no candle should be left unattended in the future.

"Well!" the headmaster said smiling and opening his arms wide "Seeing as we are all up I shall ask the kitchens to prepare an early breakfast for us all!" The students cheered and Dumbledore lead them all down towards the great hall, all of them still dressed in the night clothes.

"Great" Lily said miserably as she, Miriam, Alice and Frank waited for the room to empty "We nearly end up killing our entire house!"

"No we didn't!" Miriam said

"Mi we brought the books here that helped to start the fire and we were the ones that left those candles lit!" Alice said

"We may have brought those books and left them on the table" Miriam said "But I put those candles out as we left" Lily and Alice turned to look at Frank for conformation,

"I-I don't remember" Frank said reluctantly "it happened so quickly"

"Miriam!" Called a voice as the four friends finally made it into the great hall and they abruptly fell silent,

"I need to give you this back!" the voice belonged to Remus Lupin as he hurried towards the group digging his hand into his dressing gown pocket and bringing out a ball of fluff "This little thing woke me about twenty minutes ago" Remus said proudly

"MAC!!!" Miriam cried as she raced and grabbed the fluff ball from Remus and the small stripped and spotted creature meowed pathetically as Miriam hugged him. The little kitten was in a right state his eyes, mouth and nostrils were caked in ash, his fur was dirty from the smoke and worst of all he even had patches of singed fur and the pads of his tiny feet were blistered and bleeding.

"You should be proud of him" Remus said "He saved us all, it was because of him that I was woken up" Remus indicated the long scratch on his cheek

"He woke the entire dorm up" Frank said proudly "it was us that really saved the entire house"

"So it had nothing to do with the fact that we woke Gideon Prewett who held back the fire with water charms until James and Sirius fetch the headmaster then?" Remus said smiling,

"Well maybe just a little" Frank concede "But we fetched MG"

"Yeah but it was Dumbledore that actually put the fire out though wasn't it"

"Thank you Remus" Miriam said as she pulled him close and kiss him on the cheek as Mac, despite his injuries protested at Miriam being too close to a member of the opposite sex,

"Do you think that Pomfrey could heal him?" Miriam asked them all as she released Remus, much to his displeasure,

"Hagrid's better equipped at looking after animals" Frank said eyeing Remus with what looked like jealousy

"Right I'll take him to Hagrid's" and before Miriam could even get permission from a teacher to leave the castle Miriam had already headed out into the cold castle grounds, just as the sun was beginning to rise and the sky was growing light gray,

"We should go with her!" Remus said making his way to the door

"I shouldn't mate" Frank said "That cat doesn't like any guy but Mi's brothers"

"Yes but-" Remus protested

"Hagrid's just a big friendly giant you know that" Alice said "Besides Miriam's more bothered about Mac's health then her prejudices"

"Prejudices?" Remus asked looking both nervous and bewildered, his cheeks still red from when he had blushed as Miriam kissed him

"Lets get some food" Lily said quickly trying to avoid the topic of Miriam and her prejudices, Lily hoped that the past few minutes had changed Miriam's mind about Remus and his monthly wolf condition.

That day the news of the Gryffindor's common room fire quickly spread throughout the school. Over night James, Sirius, Remus, Frank and Gideon Prewett became heroes as did Mac who Hagrid had taken exceptional care of, Miriam had thought so anyway and she was more then pleased to talk to the huge gamekeeper face to face. A distanced change lily thought to when Miriam had first met the huge man on the platform of Hogsmead station and had hide behind Lily to avoid him, but Hagrid had healed Mac's burns and now only the kittens fur had to grow back.

Prefect Gideon Prewett being the oldest of the Gryffindor girls saviours now attracted more female attentions then ever before and became the most talked about none Quidditch playing guy in the school he also became Hogwarts newest celebrity as the Daily Prophet, Witch weekly and even the Quibbler sent reporters out to the school to interview him.

And now every girl in the school wanted to date him, much to the annoyance of Dymphna who had liked Gideon since her first week at Hogwarts.

Gideon's new found fame wasn't much to his likening but as it was the most exciting thing that had happened all year at Hogwarts there was nothing that Gideon could do to stop it, his twin brother Fabian, although not identical and who was a prefect in Hufflepuff house was for once enjoying being mistaken for Gideon by his brothers new groupies. The news of the fire, the excitement of the articles and hot flushes experienced by the older girls as Gideon walked passed quickly helped the other students to forget about the Daily Prophet article that was printed about Miriam only a few days before. The only people that didn't seem to like the aftermath of the Gryffindor fire was Lily, Miriam, Miriam's older brother Jedidiah his best friend Ludo Bagman and Miriam's eldest brothers best friend Lucius Malfoy. The boys didn't like it as all the girls that would usually be hanging around them and cooing about them had now turned towards Gideon. Lily and Miriam didn't like it as McGonagall had finally decided upon the consequences of the 'Report' that she had mentioned to Miriam on the night of the fire.