Disclaimer:*sigh* I hate writing these...they always remind me that I own NOTHING!!! How very depressing...
I'm sorry I have put this chapter up earlier; I'm THRILLED with the response I'm getting with this story! I luv you guys!!
Chapter 3- Yet Another Revelation
The early morning sun streamed through the open window as the redhead in the bed closest to the window sat up slowly and rubbed her eyes. *Damn birds...* she thought grumpily as she hauled herself out of bed.*Why do they have to sing so bloody loud?!?* "BLOODY HELL!" she exclaimed loudly as she hit her head on the bedpost. She watched her roommates carefully for any signs of life, and when they didn't stir, relaxed. *Good thing they sleep like logs, or I would probably be dead now.* Finally awake, she decided to have her shower early and study a bit before breakfast. As she walked into the bathroom, she looked at all the various cosmetics spread over the vanity counter. *What on earth do they need that for? They have enough for their own drugstore!* she thought idly as she took out her cinnamon and sandalwood-scented shampoo, and hopped into the shower.
Once she had finished, and had emerged from the bathroom, she took a quick glance outside and noticed someone flying on the Quidditch Pitch, which she had found out about during one of her many explorations during the summer. *Wonder who that could be?* she thought curiously, and once she had finished dressing and drying her hair(*Thank god for drying charms!*), she realized she was ready for her school day at precisely 6:14 AM.
"Aw, crap." she muttered grouchily, and realizing that there really was no point ins studying anymore(she had practically memorized her textbooks over the summer), decided to head out to the Quidditch pitch and watch the mysterious flyer.
As Lily walked briskly out to the pitch, a black blur dove sharply from the sky straight at her. Nonchalantly holding out her arm, she continued walking as Émi halted her dive and landed gently on her arm. "Hey, girl." Lily said to her, scratching her under her beak, "Wanna go watch someone fly?" Émi hooted softly, and Lily chuckled. "I'll take that as a yes." she said, and walked through the wrought iron gates to the multicolored stands.
* * *
Lily was not the only one to wake up early. James had been unable to sleep for the latter half of the night(probably the byproduct of his gorging at the feast), so he decided to go fly. As he did several loops and dives to let off steam, he noticed the oddly familiar redhead walking down towards the pitch. He watched the owl dive onto her arm and felt an odd urge to cry out to her, to warn her, but he shrugged the feeling off. *Why do I care? She's going out with Malfoy, remember?* he reminded himself, tearing his eyes off her, and continued his warmup. Spiraling up towards the sky, he dove suddenly towards the stands and stopped mere inches from the seated Lily's face. *Whoa...those eyes...* he thought dazedly as he stared into the jade pools. So full of emotion, so warm, they reminded him of a calm tropical ocean...* You idiot! * he raged at himself after a few moments. * Hovering there staring at her is not a good thing! * Shoving the fog away from his mind, he finally spoke.
"'Morning, Lily. Anything specific bring you out here today?" he drawled lazily. Lily looked slightly shocked at the broomstick hovering centimetres from her nose, but quickly regained her composure.
"Just admiring, is all. You fly really well. Are you on the team?" she inquired politely. James immediately perked up.
"Me? With my superior skills? How could I NOT be on the team?" James said grandly, with a mock-offended expression. Lily smiled and played along.
"Oh, please excuse me, oh great one, if this lowly one has offended you. I was merely making polite conversation. Oh, please forgive me!" she said in a fawning, obsequious tone. James patted her on the head.
"There, there, quite all right." he said, but stopped suddenly when he noticed she stiffened. "Lily? Is...er, something wrong?" he said cautiously. Lily looked at him, and he could not read the expression in her jade-green eyes.
"No, I'm fine..." she said, as James continued to look at her oddly. "Really." she said, and smiled confidently. "So, what position do you play?"
"Chaser." he said, and grinned the famous Potter grin. "The best part is playing the Slytherins and getting tons of goals past Malfoy, who's SUPPOSEDLY their Keeper." Lily gave a slightly strained smile, and James' face fell. "Sorry. I, er, forgot." Lily looked at him, anger and confusion building slightly in her eyes.
"How do you know that?" she said angrily, and James nearly smacked himself. *Damn, damn, damn...she wasn't supposed to know I know!* He smiled nervously at the girl who was now resembling a lioness stalking prey. "James...tell me." Her voice held barely restrained fury.
"Er...ah...got to go, see you in class!" And with that, James sped off, leaving Lily to wonder how on earth he knew that.
* * *
After puzzling over James' reaction for a little while, Lily headed off to the dorms. When she got there, she almost fell over at the miasma of odours emanating from their room. Fanning the fumes away from her face, she came face to face with Ally, Michelle and Alicia, doing their nails and coloring their hair.
"Hey Lily! Wanna be a blonde for a day? I think it would look GREAT on you!" cooed Alicia, who was putting red streaks in her hair. Ally looked up from painting her nails a blood red.
"No, Lily has her big date tonight...wouldn't want Lucius not to recognize her, now, would we!" said Ally, with a nasty undertone to her voice. *What's she got stuck up her ass this morning?* Lily wondered idly, then decided she'd better go before she was poisoned.
"Yeah, er...I'd better head down to breakfast." Michelle giggled, and waved in a cutesy way before going back to painting her nails purple with silver sparkles. The other two ignored her. Lily shrugged, and headed down the staircase.
As she entered the Great Hall, she realized she was the only one there, except for Dumbledore and a woman she had never seen before. As she grabbed a plate, picked up a solitary piece of toast and started to eat, she was suddenly shocked by a hand on her shoulder. She whirled around, only to see the woman who had been by the Head table only a moment before. * HOLY...hang on. I didn't even hear her come up. Did she use magic?* Lily wondered as she stared dumbly at the woman.
"Professor Dumbledore wishes to see you. Immediately." the woman said, in a completely accentless voice that seemed almost alien. Lily shook herself out of her reverie.
"Sure." she said, and walked with the woman up to the dais. * Weird....* Lily thought as she went up the steps. *She doesn't make any sound when she moves.* However, she had no more time to think on the matter.
"Hello, miss Evans. Sleep well?" Dumbledore said, looking just as kindly as always. Lily smiled.
"Not really. I woke up early. Can I help you?" she asked politely. She was hungry for once, and that fruit salad looked really good...
"Would you mind coming along to my office? We have some things to discuss." he said. * Omigod! What if...* "Nothing about school, though." he added quickly, and Lily breathed a silent sigh of relief.
"Sure, why not, professor." she said, and they walked to his office. Lily noticed the woman was following as well. Once they had arrived, and were all confortably seated, Dumbledore sat forward slightly in his chair.
"Lily, I do have something serious to tell you, however. After much research, I have determined that you are an enchantress." Lily's heart almost stopped.
"P-p-professor?!?" she stuttered, practically incoherent. Dumbledore smiled, the same smile that always seemed to calm her down. Lily took a deep breath.
* Wait till he explains, he'll explain everything, he always does..* her mind ran in little circles and she tried to calm herself down. "You're kidding, right?" she said, in a shaky voice. Dumbledore shook his head.
"You see, miss Evans, enchantresses are actually not all that rare. Most enchantresses are born extroardinarily beautiful, but with no magical talent at all, only potential. All their magical talent has gone to shape their bodies, and only the closed channels remain. Therefore, they appear to be normal Muggles, albeit extremely beautiful. Occasionally, very powerful enchantresses will still have some magical talent left, but the most recent one has been Morgan le Fay, in King Arthur's time. You, however, are an exception. I do wonder, though, why your power showed up so late." He gave her a penetrating look. Lily, still slightly in shock, was still trying to digest all this information.
"I'm an enchantress?!? Like that evil Morgan le Fay? Does that mean I'll be evil too?" she looked at Dumbledore, fear in her eyes. To her relief, he shook his head slightly.
"Miss Evans, that is like saying because you are a wizard, you will be evil. You do have much more power than the average wizard, that is for sure. Now...do you have any idea why your power manifested this late?" Lily paused.
"Could anything trigger the channels breaking?" she asked, her mind finally beginning to work. Dumbledore thought for a moment.
"Great magical shock, excess pain...and possibly great emotional stress." he said finally, and Lily's eyes widened. * I was so scared, I was looking for a way out...THAT'S IT!!!* she thought excitedly, and she nodded to Dumbledore.
"You see, I was....er, trapped. I was trying to get out, and I could feel pressure building in my head. It just kept growing and growing, it felt like my head was going to explode! And then, something snapped, and all I can remember is stuff flying around me..." Lily babbled wildly, and Dumbledore nodded. Lily blushed as he cut her off. *Oops. Too excited. Calm down, Lily.* she reminded herself.
"Very well. Now, that mystery is solved! Well done, miss Evans!" He paused, looking at Lily. "Anything else?" he said, and Lily nodded tentatively.
"My mom. And all those other people! What happened to them?" she asked, a little anxiously. Dumbledore sighed.
"Most of the Muggles were fine, and they underwent Memory charms. They don't remember a thing. Your mother, however, was the first to awaken and was quite upset. One of the ministry workers, a certain Flavius Belcoddy, got slightly...er, angry, and made his Memory charm slightly too strong. She remembers nothing of her former life." He looked cautiously at Lily, and to his surprise, found her nodding.
"That's good. She wouldn't want to remember it...or me." she finished, without a trace of emotion. *I can cry later!* she told herself fiercely, willing the tears back out of her eyes. "Anything else?" she asked. Dumbledore nodded slowly.
"There was...some blood, near the mat where you were lying. It belonged to nobody who was still there, and there were no bodies. Any ideas?" he asked, as Lily's horrible memories began to return.
*Flashback*
"And now, pretty silent one, let's see if I can make you scream." he said, his hand trailing along her chest. She fought to keep her anger in check, but she could hold it no longer, and threw a weak punch at his face.
"Please," she gasped fearfully, "Please..." The man chuckled evilly.
*End Flashback*
"No, sir." she gulped, pushing them away. "None at all." Dumbledore looked at her searchingly, then sighed.
"Very well. But now, we come to the other reason for coming here. Because of your beauty and power, you may be vulnerable. Professor Aquila," he motioned to the woman in the corner, "will be teaching physical self-defense. Her classes will not truly start for a few weeks and she has kindly volunteered to teach you. With that, I leave you in her capable hands." He swept from the office, leaving them eyeballing each other.
*Oh shit. I am so dead....* Lily thought ruefully as the woman scanned her over.
"So...we cannot practice in here. Dumbledore has arranged a room for our use, which is through that mirror." Professor Aquila said in her strange voice, gesturing towards the beautifully scrolled and ornamented oval. "The password is 'Volo dell'aquila'." The woman looked at her. "You will be missing your morning classes to learn the basics, and we will begin to refine them as time goes on. Now, we go." The professor went to the mirror, softly spoke the password, and as it swung open, climbed down the flight of stone steps, leaving Lily to follow and hope to hell she would be alive by dinner.
* * *
"Did you see Malfoy's face?" chortled Sirius as he bounced down a flight of stone steps towards Transfiguration. "His hair, completely pink...his face made up like a clown...those floppy clown shoes...." he finished, laughing his head off. Remus picked up where he left off.
"The big clown jumpsuit with polkadots...." he smiled. "And the best part, when he tried to wipe the makeup off, he wrote 'I do birthday parties!' on his forehead! He was shrieking like a girl!" All four boys laughed, slapped a high five and ran into class as the clock struck nine.
As they all grabbed seats in the back, smiled charmingly at the girls who had turned to look at them, and in Sirius' case, winked, Professor McGonagall came into class.
"Today, class, we will be turning our desks into pigs." The class jumped into an uproar.
"Geez, for once we actually do something FUN! Maybe third year will be better!" James said to Sirius, as the reactions around them were similar. McGonagall held up a hand for silence.
"You must follow my instructions exactly, or your desk will turn into some other creature, usually for the worse. Now, this is the incantation: 'Piggo, piggere...'
James and Sirius tuned out, as usual.
"Hey, Jamesy, where's the hot redhead this morning?" Sirius asked, insolently leaning back in his chair. James shrugged.
"I dunno. She wasn't at breakfast. But I did see her this morning. AND..." he said more loudly, as Sirius started to speak. "Don't...call...me...JAMESY!" Sirius smirked.
"Sure, whatever...Jamesy." Seeing the death glare James was giving him, he quickly changed his mind. "Er...James. Right. So, back to Lily?"
James shrugged. "Yeah, I went flying this morning. She was there too, we talked for a little bit and yeah, I kinda, erm, let slip about Malfoy..." James felt a slight flash of sadness and anger at the aforementioned boy. * What the hell? What's wrong with me? * he thought angrily.
Sirius solved the problem unknowingly by thwacking James over the head, thus distracting him. "Jamesy, you dunce! Now she'll be angry at all of us!" James shook his head.
"Nah, lucky for you blokes she only knows that I know...I'm doomed..." he moaned, and Sirius' expression brightened.
"All right, then. She'll just kill you, and I can comfort her afterwards." He looked around the classroom, and was startled not to see a head of flaming red hair.
"Hey, where is she anyways?" James shrugged.
"I dunno...hopefully far away from me. It might make my lifespan a little longer!" * Not to mention help my concentration.* he thought wryly. Sirius snickered, and they both turned their attentions back to class.
* * *
"Much better, miss Evans!" exclaimed professor Aquila as Lily relaxed marginally. Checking her watch, she realized it was almost noon. * Holy shit...* Lily thought exhaustedly, though keeping a wary eye on her teacher, who had attacked her while she was not on her guard before. * I don't think I've ever been so physically tired in my life! * The professor nodded once more. "So, now we will go over ways to defend ourselves verbally." she prompted Lily, who sighed audibly.
"First, if the attacker comes at you from behind you, you can stomp on their instep, elbow them in the stomach, twist their wrists, bend their fingers back, push the soft part of their cuticles with your nail, kick them backwards if you have no other option, anything to make them let go of you. Then, run. If the attacker ends up on top of you, you must get him to release one hand somehow; scream, bite, wait for him to unzip his pants, anything. Then, twist your hips and throw him off you. Once free, run. The sensitive areas to hit are the groin, feet, stomach, nose, temples and eyes." she parroted. The professor nodded.
"Excellent, miss Evans. However, the running away is only temporary. As you progress, you will be able to incapacitate your opponent, with or without a wand. Now, this will be the only full morning session we have. Tommorrow, your lesson will right after classes are finished. They will usually last one hour. You may go."
Lily turned, every fiber of her body screaming for a hot bath.
"One more thing, miss Evans. It is often wise to have a 'trick up your sleeve'. I suggest you tell no one about these lessons. The same goes for your enchantress powers." Lily nodded wearily, and trudged up the seemingly endless stone stairs.
As she dragged herself through the halls, she saw everyone coming down to lunch. * Let them stare. * she thought grumpily. She had the tendency to be a bitch when she was tired or angry. * If anyone says anything, I swear I will kill them. * As she headed towards the Gryffindor common room, she met her dormmates. * I hope they're in a better mood than this morning...cuz I don't think I can take anything else. * she thought. Fortunately for her, they were.
"Hey girls." she said wearily. Ally let out a little screech.
"Honey, have you walked through the castle like that? You look like shit!" Michelle exclaimed. Alicia looked worried.
"I hope we don't have a class that's too rough...I just did my nails again!" she waggled them in front of Lily, who managed a strained smile. Ally took charge.
"Lily, you head right up and have a hot bath. We'll catch up at lunch when you're awake. Bye!" Ally, Michelle and Alicia walked off. Lily spoke the password ("Plum pudding") and, after entering the common room, stared balefully up at the staircase.
"You, are evil." she said to the innocent set of stairs. "Why do you have to be so high?"
"Lily, are you okay?" Remus asked quizzically. He had just appeared at the top of the boy's staircase. Lily blushed.
"Oops. Caught me in one of my not-quite-sane moments." Remus smiled a genuine grin.
"That's okay. Sirius and James have those all the time. So, the stairs?"
"Yes, I am EXHAUSTED and those things are way too high!" she whined. Remus sighed.
"I'll help you, on one condition." he smirked. Lily paused.
"What?" she asked, a note of seriousness in her voice. * If he asks me out...* the worrying part of her mind thought, but could get no further.
"You play chess with me. Please? The other guys suck!" he pleaded, and Lily smiled.
"Fine. Now, please." she said, flicking her hand in a mock-imperious way. Remus bowed jokingly, and levitated her up the stairs.
"You rock Remie!" she exclaimed as new energy flooded her limbs. She rushed into her dorm room as Remus stared at her, slightly puzzled.
"Remie?" he said quietly to himself, then shrugged and headed down for lunch.
Again, I apologise TONS for making my wonderful readers wait. RL does take it's toll...exams...various crap assignments...Anyhoo, I will have the next chappie out sooner, I promise! Really!
Of course, now comes the big thanks for the reviewers:
Stefanorkle, River Goddess, Lyz(I hope this chappie came out in time and you are ok!), Joyce, Sarah May(Yes, I would love to do that too...but I have a whole plot line to follow!), The Chalupa(That sounds like such a kewl idea!), Summer Rain(Thanx...I spent a long time on the song!), babygreenleaf, psychopatient789 and FEAngel258:
Yes, Lily is very open. This is still technically the beginning chapters, and she's really trusting and open because she's left her old life behind, and everyone seems so nice. That will change, don't worry...the plot has to develop a little more. Thanx for the comments though- I love criticism and questions, they help me write better!