::Midnight Lily::
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter – it belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter Ten
Review for Chapter Eight: (I was in a rush at the time and 4got)
CountessMel: What would a romance/drama fanfic be, without over-the-top drama? Plus I had to write that small part about the wedding and the ocean – mainly the wedding. There are two reasons for that; number one, it saves up for a whole lot of mushiness in the other chapters by squeezing it all in one, number two, the wedding is linked with something coming up – can't tell till later and it's not what you think. lol
Annmarie Aspasia: The ocean is, in fact, a clear transparent colour. It may look either green or blue due to the reflection of objects around it. Sorry if I'm going all 'sciency' (okay, not a word!) here, but it's really quite simple to understand. See, the ocean may look blue to you, probably because the sky above it is blue, and that colour is reflected off the ocean surface. But other times it might look green because of the seabed beneath it. It depends on the types of surroundings your in. But then again, I've noticed that most of my reviewers are from atop the northern hemisphere and I'm down in the southern hemisphere. Is there a possibility that the ocean here is green and the ocean, up where you guys are, is blue?
IcyCrystal: I don't really have the time to read fanfics lately, because of all this studying that's going on. But if I have a chance I'll see to it that I'll check it out. By the way, with the ocean thing, you have to just see it from a perspective. I mean, when you really look into someone's eyes (someone that you really like that is!) you just don't see an obvious solid colour (like emerald). What you really see is a whole lot of intermixing colours – ones that others don't really see. For instance, James doesn't just see emerald, he might see darker shades or lighter shades in her eyes (like the rippling of waves) and then there might be tints of sapphire buried beneath it all. To the answer of oceans being blue or green, just look at the reply to the review above. Thanx 4 reading my fanfic!
That was it. The final exams were over. Everyone was ecstatic. Everyone was overjoyed – especially the seventh years. Some people were apprehensive, reassured, contented, and then there were those who dreaded their results, but everyone was glad that it was all over. "Lily! Hi!" It was Ailsa. Her ginger brown hair was tied in a neat ponytail behind her head. "What did you have for question fourteen in the Ancient Runes test?" Her best friends, Isabelle Brown and Bertha Jorkins, hovered awkwardly behind her. "I don't think I answered all the right points."
"It was okay," Lily commented. She sat at a bench with Katie and Sabina – Amber was off somewhere with Wade. "That was a trick question because he told us the answers during the last class – you just had to listen." She closed the book she was reading leisurely and looked up at Ailsa.
"Well, I wasn't listening," Ailsa said craftily. "Too busy trying to revise the last minute notes. Bertha, Isa – just go back to the common room without me, I want to talk to Lily." Lily saw Isabelle and Bertha exchanging glances behind Ailsa's back but they left. "Can we have a talk, Lily?"
Lily reluctantly left her place on the bench and walked beside Ailsa. "What do you want to talk to me about?" Lily asked.
"I thought that you might want to know about this," Ailsa said nervously. "But I saw you and James kissing by the lake – I know it was meant to be confidential and everything, but it was kind of an accident. I didn't mean to protrude through your privacy."
Lily gave her a kind smile. She had seen them! It brought hope to James and then again to Lily –
"It's okay," Lily replied considerately. "I mean, the lake isn't a very confidential place, if we had wanted it to be really secret then we would have chosen a more appropriate location."
"I hadn't thought of that," Ailsa said. "So it's alright with you?"
"Yes," Lily answered. She paused for a moment before asking, "How did you come across us?"
"I – I was feeling a little low," Ailsa said faintly. "Please don't tell Bertha or Isabelle, but I gave up trying to find anyone for the Graduation Ball."
"You're not going with anyone?" Lily asked curiously.
"No," Ailsa answered. "Not since – Anders completely stood me up." She folded her arms and looked away from Lily. They were at the very edge of the Forbidden forest, and not far from the lake either. The wind blew with a gentle edge towards it. It was soon close to summer, and winter was long gone. "I knew he was too good to be true, so romantic and funny – like James. But I don't want James, I mean he's nice, but you have him. I don't want him, he's not my type, and he's a little too bold."
"Little too bold for me too," Lily said lightheartedly. Ailsa giggled. "But you can't just give up. Go with a friend or something, someone who can just keep you company and who you can have a good time with."
"Maybe," Ailsa said shortly. "But I don't know. How come you don't have a date then – I mean, I heard that you haven't found a date yet."
"I'm a single person," Lily said with a sigh. "I don't hook up with someone who'd dump me a few months later."
"Then – how about Potter? Isn't he your boyfriend?" Ailsa asked with astonishment. "I thought you two were going together – until I heard that you weren't."
"We are," Lily said quickly. "But –at this rate, no seventh year girl will have a partner."
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But that was completely wrong. At the end of the day someone who was to never have a date would have one – unexpectedly. Lily, Katie, and Sabina sat by the fireplace that evening just talking about what they would do when the year ended. "My parents are going to pay for an apartment they found by the coast," Sabina told her friends. "But I'll have to supply money for them later on – it's such a drag when I have an older brother and older sister to do it for me. It's as if they don't have enough money already for them."
"But we should stay close together at least," Katie pointed out. "I don't want to be half a country away from you guys."
"You have to learn to be independent," Lily said. "Cook, clean, make your own money – God no, Katie! You're going to die after a week!"
"Not funny, Lily," Katie retorted, slapping her lightly on the arm. "I think I'll do okay."
"Next thing you know we'll be loaning her money every month," Sabina whispered into Lily's ear.
"I heard that," Katie snarled. "And I really don't care what you two think of me. I'll be staying at my parents' house for two months then I'll move into a cheap place I can find. I'm planning to work in St. Mungo's with Mum." A soft tapping came from the window of the Gryffindor common room but the three seventh year girls ignored it.
"A healer?" Sabina asked wide-eyed. "Do you really think that you can heal, Katie?"
"Don't worry about me –"
"I wasn't worried about you," Sabina interrupted. "I'm worried about the patient." Sabina and Lily looked at each other and laughed. The drumming sound continued again.
"What's that noise?" Lily asked inquiringly.
"I think it's raining outside," Katie said, without even looking at the window. "Trust the weather to turn bad after our exams."
"It's not rain, Katie," Sabina said, standing up and looking at the window. "It's an owl – an official looking one – I think it's from the Ministry or something." She opened the door and the owl swooped in to perch onto one of the armrests by the fire. "Who is it for?"
Katie took it and read the front. "It's for me," she said trembling slightly. "What did I do wrong?"
"Don't know," Sabina said shortly, coming back to join them. The owl at that point flew away. He obviously didn't want to listen to the news that was in it. "Read it."
Katie broke the seal and unfolded the letter;
"Dear Ms. Katie Summers, (it read)
I am dreadfully sorry to inform you that your house, 42 Harrow St. London, was present with the Dark Mark along with three other homes this noon. We have searched through your house for any survivors and, instead, discovered both the bodies of your parents' lying on the second floor by the stairs. After thorough examinations, we are even more apologetic to inform to you that they had been dead for some time before we had found them. We have certainty to believe that they were victims of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and the Killing Curse.
Do not do anything foolish, Ms. Summers. You have been given permission to complete your final year in Hogwarts. A hearing has yet to be scheduled to confirm upon your new guardian. If you have any questions or hope to find any guidance at this time, we recommend that you'd see Professor Dumbledore. He'll be sure to send us a message.
Truly apologetic for everything that has happened.
Lisa Redtusk
The Department of Unsolved Crimes"
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"They're gone," Katie thought to herself. "They're completely gone." The feeling within her was strange; as if she knew she should be sad but she wasn't – not completely. She was caught between a void of shock and resentment. Resentment towards the Dark Lord. After she had read the letter, she ran up to the dormitory and placed a locking charm onto the handle. She didn't want her friends to follow and pay pity upon her. She wanted to go through this herself.
But her friends must have known that too because they didn't come up to disturb her. Katie knew Lily could have lifted the charm in a second but she didn't.
"I'm completely alone in the world," Katie told herself. The echo that she heard was not the voice she remembered. It was bitter and cold. "That sounded so stupid; but here I am talking to myself. I don't know why I don't want to mourn or anything – I don't know why I don't feel myself." She leaned against the door and closed her eyes, trying to picture her Mum's face.
But instead, another event crossed Katie's mind:
"Your dad's an Unspeakable, right?" Lily had asked.
"Yep," Katie said. "I don't know why he's so hooked up in the Department of Mysteries. Remember I told you about the accident he had last year? When he was sent back twenty years in time? I thought I'd never see him again. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if my dad went missing again. My mum always said that his job would end his life."
That could have been the reason why the Dark Lord had tried to kill her Dad; because he was an Unspeakable. Then why had he killed her Mother too? Probably because she was in the way. That was how the mind of the Dark Lord's worked; to kill everyone and anything standing in his way, regardless of the consequences.
Katie couldn't help but picture the scene in her mind. Her Mother screaming as he blew up the front door. Her Father was probably upstairs, that's why her Mother ran up – to warn him. She'd scream in panic, dreading the very moment in which she stood upon – and then nothing. A cold body of a woman lying on the floor. Dead before her body even reached the ground. Her eyes wide open, her face pale and lifeless – Katie's Mother. Then her Dad. He would have rushed out in a fluster. His eyes would rest upon his dead wife. But not before he was dead as well.
For some reason, Katie found the letter a little bit unbelievable. She half-hoped that, by the time she returned home after this final term they'd be there, waving and smiling at her. At that time a pearl drop tear gently slid down her cheek. It would have been great to reunite with them at the end of the school year. She'd spend two months at their house before moving into her home. Then she'd have visited them every month or so. That would have been great. But that greatness would never happen. Not now. Not anymore.
And the tears. Rolling down her cheeks until they could have filled an entire ocean. She felt like screaming, yelling – to just escape. But then she couldn't. She was caught in jail. What could she do but watch life pass her by?
Katie listened for any sounds behind the door but none came. Everything was quiet. Everyone was out having fun somewhere. Quickly, she dried away her tears and lifted the curse from the door. As she made her way down to the common room, she found that it was completely empty except for Sirius, who stood by one of the windows. He was watching the students walking around on the grounds.
"There he goes, sulking again," he was mumbling to himself. "Urgh! Look at that slimy filth – should have taught him a thing or two when it was caught by that Devil's Snare." He turned his head slightly to the right and laughed at a first grader who had slipped on the grass.
Katie sat down onto one the armchairs by the fire. She didn't care about Sirius anymore. He can have his stupid fun. He didn't know that her parents had just died. He wouldn't care anyway. He would just start going on about how he wished his parents would die or something. Katie gave a small smile at the thought.
A long time ago she would have wished for her parents to have died. That's because they're a living hell and a nuisance to begin with. But they had also brought her into the world. It's funny how you can't see what you've got till it's truly gone.
"Are you okay?" Sirius asked from behind her. She quickly wiped away the new formed tears in her eyes, pretending to have some dust in them. Why would he care about what she was thinking? Why would he care about anything?
"I'm just fine," Katie replied bitterly.
"What's your name again? Nichole?" Sirius asked.
"Katie," she answered.
"You're Lily's friend aren't you?" Sirius asked.
"And you still don't remember my name after all these years?" Katie asked sarcastically.
"You shouldn't expect me to remember everything," Sirius replied haughtily. He folded his arms and went back to looking out of the window. "I was just wondering. I mean, you always spend your time around Evans, it was a pretty big shock to see you alone."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Katie asked sharply, standing up to look at him.
"You're just always with some friends – that's all," Sirius answered. "It wasn't meant to insult you or anything."
"Well, to be honest," Katie told Sirius. "I don't really think much about you and your 'Mischief Mob.' You think it's just all a bunch of fun – running around and injuring innocent first years. But I just call that irresponsibility. Then that friend of yours – James Potter, he's just as bad, maybe worst. He was really thick to go around trying to make an impression on Lily – then pulling that wild vengeance ruse. I don't even know what he did because, obviously, Lily's still too embarrassed to talk about it."
Sirius looked at Katie and gave her a grim smile. "Not my fault if my best friend goes around cursing people," Sirius told Katie. "If you should criticize anyone, criticize him. And then again no – he'd probably put a curse on you too." He gave Katie a smile.
"That is totally sickening," she replied in disgust. She turned around and began to make her way back to the dormitory again.
"Wait," Sirius called out. "Katie! Do you have anyone to go with to the Graduation Ball?"
Katie turned around and looked at him in distress. "What in the world are you talking about?" she asked. "Weren't we supposed to be arguing with each other?"
"Nah! Can't be bothered," Sirius said indolently. "So? Do you want to go with me?"
"Sure," Katie said. She saw that he was smiling at her and added quickly, "But only because I have no one better to go with."
A/N: How strange is this world? Please review!