Disclaimer: I own none of the characters 'cept Caroline, I just enjoy playing with the rest.
Wanderings
It was just after two-thirty a.m. on a Sunday morning, and a shadow stole along the sixth floor corridor.
Lily moved somewhat awkwardly with two huge tomes beneath one arm and her wand clutched in the other. She stopped stock-still when she heard shuffling up ahead.
Lily listened hard; the shuffling seemed to be coming in her direction. She peeped very cautiously around the corner. At first nothing registered in her vision only a mixture of darkness and the vague shadows thrown by the waning moon, but then she managed to distinguish two dark shadows moving close to each other against the wall – straight towards her.
Lily made a noise much akin to a mouse being sat on before ducking behind the suit of armour to her left.
"Did you hear that?" came a whispered exclamation from the now-coalesced-into-one shadow.
"Yes…"
Lily had a sudden vision of 'the shadow' talking to itself and felt laughter well up inside of her. As long as she stayed quiet she'd be ok… Yet as it often is, the quieter one tells oneself to be, the more noise is generally made.
"It's probably just a lost first-year," came the first voice again.
"What at two-thirty in the morning?" muttered the second, slightly deeper, voice. "They'd have to have been lost for a very long time!"
"Well this year's one's are pretty stupid – I found one saying the password religiously to that door-that's-really-a-wall on the floor above Gryffindor, I mean how dumb can you be?"
"Digressing again, Black," the second voice murmured.
Ah, so it's Black and Potter. I wonder what brings them on nightly wandering.
"Much as I appreciate being compared to first years, I happen to know my way around Hogwarts just fine thank you," she announced, purely to keep the giggles that were about to crack her rib at bay. After all it was only Black and Potter, they couldn't really tell on her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."
"Evans!" exclaimed Potter. Mmm, a quick 'un. "Where are you going?"
"I could ask the same question," Lily retorted, "but I don't really care. Good-night." She strode away down the corridor, the moonlight from the windows playing across her head and shoulders.
The redhead allowed a smile stretch across her features, she really had just been very mean – but they deserved it. The smile abruptly disappeared though when she heard more scuffling, this time to her right. For a short second she thought it could be the two Marauders back again, but quickly realised it couldn't be.
She turned her head just in time to see figure disappear from view. Now who else could be out at this time of night? Maybe it was Filch? This thought sent her along with no further ado.
She entered the library stealthily, darting between the stacks. Now came the bit which she'd spent the whole day preparing for; taking out her wand she began the complicated wand arcs the charm required and whispered the words simultaneously.
A tiny white light was emitted from the end of her wand, dancing delicately before her eyes. She smiled, so far, so good.
"Memory loss and regain," she murmured to the light.
The white light paused for a few seconds before going blue. That was a good sign.
"Show me."
The light flitted away, only barely visible between the towering book cases. As Lily predicted, it went straight into the restricted section, a floating book merged seconds later, coming to rest directly in front of her.
She grasped it and the light faded and went out – it's job done. Unwilling to open the book straight away in case it needed some sort of charm to unlock it, Lily shrunk and pocketed it. The Gryffindor thought that the book she would need would be in the restricted section, after all, unravelling a memory was not child's play.
Across the castle, Severus Snape was also awake.
He sat down on his bed taking from beneath his cloak a tattered book. He knew wandering Hogwarts halls at night was generally marked by running into the people that he disliked the most – namely Gryffindors, but he'd seen no one on his nightly travels, although he thought he'd heard someone on the sixth floor corridor. Shaking it off as his imagination, he opened the book.
A Potion to Binde a Memorie
Thou wilt neede;
An objecte from the time the memorie was composed,
A locke of haire from whom the memorie belongeth,
Three quarts of vampyre bloode,
Ten hairs from a night-dwelling Harmendyr,
Five Urblethyme stones.
Leave mixture to stand beneath a full moon for eight houres. After this time make sure they whom the memorie belongeth to drinks the tonic within two hours of it having been ready.
Snape smiled ruthlessly. He still had to get the Urblethyme stones, but the rest he already had. A lock of red hair, a small bronze Knut that Pettigrew had carried, a jar of deep red liquid and a small pitcher with 10 dark black hairs in it sat - quite innocently - on his bedside cabinet.
He was going to make sure that Lily would never remember anything that had happened that night.
Responses:
Long time, no see eh guys?
Knight - whosays - ni - yes snape is a greasy git, and i think suspense is spelt with an s... but it's 5 past 1 in the morning so i'm not sure! Thank you for your review, i hope you enjoy this somewhat belated chapter (sorry!)
Child - of - scorpio - I'm sorry i didn't update this as soon as could be hoped. But hey, here's the new chapter, enjoy! And thank you for your review!
Actrez - hehe, i'm glad you liked it! And yes, Lily's off to find out what happened. But she may be in for some problems...
Nimue88 - i'm sorry about the delayed update AGAIN but i hope you continue to enjoy my story! Thanks for the review!
Ash - Thanks for the review!
DobbyGrl - So sorry for the wait! Keep reading though, twill get interesting.... :)