Chapter 16
An Unexpected Meeting
Lily, being in the angry, frustrated mood that she was in, was not in the mood to speak with
any of her friends, least of all Janette. So it made her all the more frustrated when she saw
Janettte sitting in the same area that Lily always sat in. This was not something that should make
Lily mad, especially sine she was sitting in the same seat that she always sat in, but it made Lily
resentful of the fact that Janette was acting as if nothing had happened, and virtually forcing Lily
to sit somewhere else. Her anger only grew when she saw James being fawned over by Heather
Brooks, the school slut who was known for being easy, and also for going to any lengths to get
what she wanted. Lily stubornly walked to the end of the table opposit from Janette and
plopped down on the bench.
"Uh, um, Hi Lily." Lily looked up to see that she had sat down at the geek section of the
table, all of the people sitting near her were staring, making it too akward to get up and quietly
walk away. The table was divided up, the cool kids at one end, the people with no group in the
middle, and the nerds, geeks, and loners at the other end. Lily, in her anger, had accidently sat
down at the far end of the table with the geeks, the most socially destructive move possible. The
boy speaking had red hair, freckles, glasses, and a very nazal voice. He was pudgy, and put you
in mibnd of a bouncy ball. He was staring at her as if she was a goddess or something. He
shoved his glasses up on his nose as he spoke, grinning at her.
"Hi...who are you?"
"I'm Jake, Jake Waters. Everyone knows who you are, of course."
"Nice to meet you Jake," muttered Lily, thinking to herself that a name as sexy as Jake did
not belong to this geek. She looked around, pulling food towards her. She stopped mid stretch,
everyone withing a five foot radius was as steriotypically geeky as Jake, she saw pocket
protectors in pockets that were overflowing with ink, quills, and parchment. Those who were
reading were sneaking copius glances at her over their books, a queen had stopped in the
middle of beating down a night, even the chass peices were staring at her. She was in geek
territory now. As she met everyone's eyes in turn they looked away, going back to their normal
routine as if released from a spell. Lily couldn't help but notice that everyone periodically glanced
at her, she had the feeling that there was something in her teeth, or on her face. She couldn't help
but look at her shoes to make sure there was no toilet paper attached to them.
"Hi, hi Lily, I'm Prianca Lithen, hi, nice to meet you." Said a hyper, loud, high pitched,
sqeeky voice.
"Hi," Lily said slowly, around a mouthful of pancakes.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeth Bethel, nice to finally make your aquaintance." This voice was shy and
fast, making Lily dizzy, she did not respond.
"And I'm Julie Maken, nice to meet you." This voice sounded somewhat normal, Lily
looked up hopefully to look for the speaker. She saw a tall black girl, her hair was braided into
cornrows and held back by a bandana.
"Hello." Lily held back her hand to one of the girls who she recognized as the commander
of the queen. Apparently she was waiting for her bishop to move into position while she
introduced herself.
"Lily, I'm Nicky Miller, nice of you to join us." Said an unenthusiastic drawl. Lily looked up
and saw a boy who she vaguley remembered.
"Sorry, but do I know you?"
"I sit behind you in Ancient Runes, how kind of you to remember, I didn't think you'd ever
noticed me." This boy did not seem to fit in with the others. He leaned back lazily in his chair,
totally at his ease, he had been reading and Lily had not noticed him when she first arrived. Lily
blushed, most of these people were probabally in at least one of her classes, or had been at one
point. She had never seen any of them, it was a foriegn world down here. "So, Lily, what brings
you down to our part of the world on this fine day?"
"I'm in a fight with my friend and didn't feel like sitting with her."
"Oh, I feel so honored."
"Not like that, I mean, well, yes, it is like that. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude." He
chuckled, leaning his chair back some more.
"I don't mind, frankly I'm suprised that you came here at all."
"Well, it was kind of an accident."
"Oh, the compliments just don't stop coming."
"Sorry, it's just, well, never mind. And don't lean your chair like that, you'll hurt yourself."
"Ok, if you want me to stop." He was cut off from saying more by a storm of noisy owls
coming in. Lily looked up just in time to be splattered with syrup by a feather that had fallen off a
passing, low flying owl.
"Damn it!!! Now what will I do?" Nicky stood up, offering her his napkin and bending
down to help mop up the floor. He was very tall, and well built to. How could she never have
noticed him before?
"Here, let me help."
"I'm okay, thank you." Lily looked up and happened to see that over at her normal seat
there was an owl looking around in confusion. She saw that it was a barn owl that looked
exactly like the one frequently used by her aunt Ida, who was also a witch. She rushed down to
her normal seat which was all the way at the opposite end of the table, leaving Nicky looking
confused. As she ran past the people ssitting she got dirty looks, whether for her running, for the
fact that she was covered in syrup, or the fact that she, on of the most popular girls, had been
sitting with the geeks, she was not sure. She plopped down, out of breath, scooping up her owl.
"Ms. Lily Evans, I regret to inform you that your aunt, Ms. Ida Evans, has passed away
recently. She suffered from a weak heart, as I am sure you are aware. She has been in the
hospital from a heartattack since two weeks ago. For about two years she has been in the
hospital off and on monthly. We are very sorry for you loss, but on a more pleasant note,
you have been left a small fortune by your aunt. Being the only witch in your family
besides your aunt, she has left you her entire life savings and all of her magical possetions
and valuables, some 11,567 gallions, 789 sickles, and 102 knuts. All of the money has
been left in her Gringots vault for you use, enclosed in this envelope is the vault number
and the key to the vault, all you have to do in order to cess the account is present this key
to any of the gringots staff. Thank you for your time, I hope you have a very nice day."
The letter was unsigned, Lily turned the parchement over, expecting more. Nothing. She
shook the envelope and out fell a slip of parchement with only the number 327 written on it. This
must be the vault number. In addition to the paper came a little gold key, also etched with the
number 327. Lily stood, rooted to the ground. She sliped the key into her pocket absent
mindedly and paroused the letter again. She was rich now, and would never need to ask her
parents to delve into their life savings in order to buy her school supplies again, but in return she
had lost her favorite aunt, and the only family member she could talk to.
Once, a long time ago, before she had found out that she was a witch, she had taken a silly
quiz. It had listed five animals and asked her to list them in her order of prefference. She had
done so. At the end of the quiz it told her that each of the enimals coresponded to either love,
money, family, pride, or career. Her order of favorite animals was supposed to reflect the order
that she valued these five things. Her order had been family, love, pride, career, and money last.
At the time she had laughed it off, saying that pride and money came way before the others.
Now she was not so sure, perhaps family was more important than money. Lily knew that she
would miss summer trips to stay with her aunt more than she would value the money. Lily felt an
arm around her waiste and she was pulled onto someones lap. She recognized Sirius's laughing
eyes and dropped the letter to the floor, still shocked at the news. Sirius squeezed her waiste
and whispered something in her ear, normally his anticks and flirting made her giggle, but today
she just burst into tears, sobbing into his shoulder. He was obviously taken aback, and he
stiffened for a moment. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer and compforting her.
"What happened? Lily? Are you okay. Sirius what did you do?" Holly walked over, and
Lily felt Sirius shrug underneathe her cheekbone. Janette came over and picked up the letter
from the floor.
"Oh my god, Holly, her aunt died, and she's rich now."
"Who? Lily? No way!"
"Yeah, read this."
"Her aunt died?"
"Poor Lily, her aunt was the only other witch in her family."
"Really? Oh yeah, it says so here."
"Lily?" Lily looked up and saw a blurry Caroline through her tears. "Are you okay?"
"No."
"Idiot, what do you think? Of course she's not okay. Her aunt just died. Lily, Lily, look at
me." Janette shook her. Lily threw her arms around her.
"I-I'm s-s-so s-s-sorry. I was t-t-terrible to you."
"It's okay darling, I don't mind, it's alright, are you going to be okay?"
"I-I-I-I don't know. Y-Y-Yes."
"Let's go somewhere quiet, away from here, we'll see you guys in class."
"Bye guys. Lily, are you sure you're okay?" Lily did not respond, she just continued
weeping silently into Janette's sholder.
"Shhh. Shhh. Darling, quiet now, it's okay, it'll be fine, shhh."
"Janette, I'm so sorry, I was so mean and hateful, and inconsiderate of your feelings. You
were right, and I did ask you to tell me things like that. I'm so sorry, and you were right about
James too, what an ass, right?"
"Totally, but be quiet now darling, let's go to the library and sit and be quiet."
"Okay, but do you forgive me?"
"Of course I do, but shhh now darling."
"You're the best Janette, where would I be without you?"
"Either Sirius's lap, or James's pants, I expect would be the most likely places." Lily, not
wanting another row, pretended not to have heard. They reached the library and sat down in
one of the back corners. Lily stared out of the window, remembering her summers with her aunt,
Janette sat staring at Lily, remembering the girl she used to be. Five minutes later the bell rang,
Janette said that lily should not go to classes, but Lily refused, claiming that if she missed yet
another day of school she would fall too far behind to catch up. "Well, if you insist, I suppose
you know best. Come on, we're late for Divination as it is, and Professor Rallel hates tardiness."
When they climbed the later to the divination room they saw their fat, grumpy, divination
proffesor sitting in an armchair, lecturing the class about profetic dreams. He gave Lily and
Janette evil looks as they slid into the seats on either side of Caroline. Lily opened her book and
feigned searching in her bag for an essay she had not written.
"Oh, proffessor, I seem to have left my essay in the common room, I could go get it if you
like," Lily started to stand up, but he waved her back into her seat,
"no, no Lily, you're a good student, I trust that you did it. How about I give you an
Acceptable, and if you hand it in to me by the end of the day I'll read it and move you up. Does
that sound fair?"
"Oh, yes proffessor Rallel, I'll see if I can get it to you, but I need to meet with Professor
Inkbeat about one of my essays, so I might not make it."
"Not a problem, it's absolutley fine." He sat with a complacent beam on his face, looking at
Lily as if she were some kind of angel.
"I spent an hour writing that essay, at least, you didn't even do it and you get a great grade.
Hw do you do it?" Caroline asked through the corner of her mouth.
"If you do your homework well consistantely, than they won't mind when you miss an
assignment, or six."
"You haven't done a singal assignment this year."
"Not true, that cut me deep. I wrote a paragraph about the correct method of crystal
gazing."
"Right, so one assignment out of maybe one hundred, and you still have a better grade than
me. And you still haven't made up that test."
"I know, I really must try and make time for that."
"Are you sleeping with him or something? How do they all love you? Are you mixing
potions? Can I have some? How are they all fooled by you?"
"I honestly don't know, if I had a potion, the first class I would use it in is Transfiguration, I
wouldn't waste it on divination."
"Good point."
"Now class, we are starting dream interpretation and profetic dreams, who knows, maybe
we'll have a prophet amoung us this year. I remember one year we did, a chap named Tom,
Tom Riddle I belive his name was. Nice boy. He had the strangest dreams, and they always
came true as well. Once, the only dream i haven't lived to see come true, he had a dream that he
would become the ruler of this world..."
"Good, keep him on this tangent, It'll delay the test, and we won't get homework."
"Anyway, he was quite a clever lad, so polite, so kind, always got top grades-"
"Sounds like you Lily, obviously you two had the same trick."
"Tom Riddle, doesn't he have some award or other in the trophey room, or he was head
boy, or something like that."
"-he was head boy-"
"That clears that up."
"-he disapeared a while ago, no one knows where he went, he never comes to the reunions,
and he had so many friends as well, I wonder why... Anyway, prophetic dreams, your
assignment will be to get into groups and discuss your most recent dreams, there will not be
homework on this topic, although I will be coming around and periodically check that you are
discussing dreams, and not gossiping. I also recomend that you all keep journals by your beds in
oder to write down things you dream, it is often difficult to remember dreams later on. Of you
go."
They had been talking about dreams for about five seconds when the bell rang.
"Yes! No homework in one subject, off too Herbology, let's hope we have as good luck
there." They did not have as good of luck there, they were out on the lawn, tending to a
Whomping Willow that had been importaed to Hogwarts at the same time that Lily started going
there. They were bandaging it and it was very difficult to manuver around it, as it tried to attack
every time someone approached. For homework they were assigned to research ways of
tending Whomping Willows without getting attacked, Lily was pessimisticthat such a way
existed.
Rubeus, a gamekeeper who had been at Hogwarts for about 20 years. He had a beard and
messy black hair. He was also about 12 feet tall and had a girth of about 5 feet. He was huge,
personally Lily thought that he had swallowed a messy potion, but never thought about him
much. He was shy and self contious, he only came into his element when he was dealing with
animals and plants, making him a perfect gamekeeper. He was with them in the lesson and
proved to be an invaluable shield against the attacking braches, he appeared nt to feel any of the
tree's bruisings. He took a terrible beating once when he twisted around at the cry of a student
and was whiped in the face by a branch. He gushed blood from his nose and ran off to the
hospital wing with a broken nose. When Lily arrived at Ancient Runes she noticed Nicky sitting
behind her.
"Hey Nicky."
"Hi Lily," he replied in his slow drawl, looking slightly suprised that she had remembered
him.
"What happened this morning? Are you okay? I saw you crying and leaving the hall."
"Yeah, my aunt died, but I'd rather not talk about it."
"Alright I understand. If you want to talk though, you know where I'll be."
"Thanks." She sat down, pulling off her cloak and draping it over the back of her seat,
droping her sack at her side. She could feel Nicky's eyes on the back of her neck, boring in to
her skin and making her neck hairs prickle. She thought for the first time how interesting it was
that her friends and her, along with an outer circle of Griffindor girls in the grades imediately
above and below them, and the Ravenclaw girls their age, had dated all of the guys in the school
in turn, and there was still an entire population of undiscovered losers, ready for dating. Lily
wondered if their was a higherarchy there too, and if they dated eachother. It was amazing that
she could have lived here for 5 years without ever meeting these people. It was astonishing.
Mind boggling. Professor Bluebell, one of her favorite teachers after Profesor Inkbeat, stood at
the front of the class and showed them slides of ancient runes. Their homework was the translate
a sheet of runes and to write a brief pargraph about each rune and it's background.