Chapter 29
The late evening rain had placed a sufficient amount of mist all over the grounds; enough to hide us from people, but not enough to hinder my vision.
My magic carpet (a dark green wool embroidered with silver stitches and tassels) was, as promised by the charm placed upon it years back, dust-free. Lily placed a hand on it gingerly, as it unrolled and floated up of its own accord.
"It's safe, don't worry," I hastened to assure her. I'd ridden it countless times before, back when Quidditch had still been out of the question.
"I've never ridden one of these before. . . they're quite rare, aren't they?" I smiled, and shook my head at her lack of wizarding knowledge. But. . . what could I expect? She had, after all, been raised by muggles.
"See these tassels? Look close enough, and you can see they're woven out of unicorn hair. It's an ancient protection charm, really. The ones with unicorn hair are the safest, and the most uncommon. So uncommon, in fact, that only seven are known to exist."
"It must have been quite expensive." I smirked.
"It was. But, Malfoys always deserve the best, you know." She gave an indulgent smile, but did nothing else. Obviously, she had no idea how to get on the thing.
Laws of nature clearly showed that, on materials as flimsy as carpets, you were sure to fall flat on your arse trying to get up on one, as the slope of entire thing was inversely proportional. One would go down, and the other, up. Yes, well. Muggle nonsense, most of it. That was the difference between Muggles and Wizards; Muggles found it difficult to look beyond what they saw. Wizards looked beyond nature every day.
To show Lily, I leapt nimbly (and, quite gracefully, I might add) onto the carpet. It didn't waver an inch. In fact, I suppose it didn't look very different compared to a platform; only it had no stands holding it up. As I'd expected, she followed my example, and, we were off into the rain.
I know what you're thinking. How could we both possibly lie, face up to the rain, without drowning?
Again, I stress the difference between wizards and muggles.
I'd recently discovered a waterproofing charm, that stopped you from getting soaked, but still allowed you to feel the water. It also protected certain parts of your body; the parts you didn't want to get wet (eyes, ears, noses, so on, and so forth).
Go to the Library, and you'll find there are many charms (and hexes) as useful as this one. But I'm not here to advertise the greatness of the Hogwarts Library, am I? I'm here to tell my story.
Lily looked impressed when I flicked my wand and said "Atritus Hydrosum". Then again, why wouldn't she be? I'd gotten my pronunciation and wand movement perfect. As always.
"You should teach me that spell one day."
"I could teach you a lot of things, one day." My voice must have sounded more suggestive than I thought, because I could have sworn a pink blush rose up in her cheeks, before she looked away.
Stretching myself out on the carpet, I pulled her down gently beside me. The carpet expanded to accommodate us. It hadn't been called a magic-carpet for no reason, you know.
The rain felt cold, but pleasantly so, with the spell. It was nearly winter, after all, and if it had been any colder, we would have had frozen rain.
My arms seemed to wrap themselves around her of their own will, and she rested her head on my chest, sighing contentedly.
Lily, Lily, Lily. I could never have enough of her. With the rain around us, I felt like we were in a completely different world. Closed off to the one we both hated so much. Our world, this frail little shell of humanity we'd made, would never last. It could never last. I wanted to be with her, like this, for eternity.
But even back then, I knew. I knew what we had could never be. It was a brief interlude of happiness in my otherwise miserable life. A sort of punishment, maybe? For things that I would, later on, do? Not maybe. Probably. Was there no better way to punish a man dying of thirst, than by giving him nothing more than a drop of water?
I ask too many questions, when I have too many to answer. I continue.
"Lucius, don't do it." Her voice was like the soft wind that stirred forests from their age-old slumber. On my part, it jolted me back to reality.
She couldn't see me, and she couldn't see my face. All see could see was the water, falling from an infinitely great sky. She saw what I saw. But she wasn't supposed to know what I knew. So how had she known?
With Lily, I'd always separated the word 'see' into two different meanings. She saw reality; she saw the things around her. But she also saw things inside people. Or maybe she felt them. Whatever it was, she sensed something was wrong, worse than before. I'd always found it hard to keep secrets from her.
How would I get myself out of this one? I racked my mind, and, like it had countless times before, the idea came to me. Feign confusion.
"Don't do what, exactly?" There was no denying the stiffening of my body against hers. This was a subject I definitely did not want to breach, and she knew it.
But, being Lily, she pressed on. She shouldn't have.
"I—I don't know what. But I had another dream." Damn those infernal dreams of hers.
"Haven't you been taking Severus' dreamless sleep potion?"
"It ran out months ago. Now, my dreams don't seem to be as horrible." She smiled a little. "One time, I even dreamt about a test the next day. I studied just in time." My face was devoid of emotion, and she continued, "I had a dream you did something. Something horrible. But I woke up before it happened. I saw you, Lucius. You were aiming the. . . the killing curse. At me."
My heart jumped. Would Voldemort really pick her? And if he did. . . what would I do? I could never hurt Her. . . no, not Lily. Never.
"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" She closed her eyes, and looked away from me. More likely, she looked away from the coldness and anger that I was sure was printed all over my face.
"Last night. I dreamt this last night. And I know you--"
"You know I would never hurt you Lily. It was just a dream." She hesitated.
"Maybe it was. I hope it was. The reason I didn't tell you earlier was . . . I looked up Seers in the Library. The ones who dream about the future sometimes. It said that those dreams they—we—have are usually symbolic, and not concrete. So the dream I saw of James dying. . . it might have symbolized him failing something. . . and, with the duel you had tonight—I thought my dream about you must have symbolized that, only you were 'killing me' because I was a Gryffindor, and maybe the others were Gryffindors too? I mean, you know. . . yeah." I'd learned, from recent observation, that whenever Lily said 'You know', she was troubled, and at a loss for words.
"And so you were telling me now. . . 'Don't do it', because I'm going to. . . have another duel? What?" I said, trying to hide my true feelings behind my skepticism. Voldemort would't. . . he couldn't ask me to kill Lily. He couldn't. Dumbledore was still here, wasn't he? And, old and senile as he undoubtedly was, he did offer a small, flimsy blanket of protection.
"I was telling you because. . . if there is something you're going to do. . . something bad, just. . . remember what I said. And" She paused, and looked at me with her eyes full of childlike trust and honesty, "I don't like keeping things from you."
I'd never felt guiltier in my entire life.
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Author's Notes:
Hello! I'm so sorry this chapter was so long in the making; I had to work out the numerous glitches I found, and, being a bit of a perfectionist to the bone, it took me forever to proof-read it. I hope it's all right.
If you guys have any questions (and I know you probably do, since I get confused myself), you can just add me to your messenger list (either yahoo, or hotmail); my hotmail address is hes_gail@hotmail.com, and my yahoo address is underscore_underscore1@yahoo.com J e-mails though, should be sent to the hotmail one, as I never check my yahoo account J
Thank Yous:
Chelli--J your constant reviews keep me going J Yes, Draco's very much like his father, except Draco, the poor thing, is still clueless as to what Lucius' biography is about. Obviously, Lucius isn't too keen on letting his son know what he'd gotten up to as an adolescent J I tried showing Draco how to use internet, but he ended up getting annoyed and he hexed me, to vent off some of his anger. How horribly impolite. Good news: Lucius is coming back tomorrow!! With my Dragon Meat burger!! *cough cough* not that I actually look forward to eating Dragon Meat J
NewSecretRose-- J yay, I love new readers, so thanks for reviewing! J I'm glad you liked the blood part, I thought it was really sweet too; Lucius should get frustrated and do insensible things more often, because it really suits him J
Sarah-- *apologetic smile* I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with your story lately; dratted tests! Eew, and midterms are coming soon! Waah. *sob* That Whomping Willow thing is a great idea! Unfortunately, I didn't get to use it for this chapter, but I probably will later on J And I'll dedicate that chapter to you J
Tv-fan-06-- J glad you like the story, and thanks so much for reviewing! J
Please please please please please review if you're reading, because I'll probably need reviews to keep me going throughout midterms. . . *sob* please? Pretty please? J
