Chapter 9:
The first term and a half seemed to take forever to Lily, and she couldn't wait to go home for Christmas. Petunia had been invited to a friend's resort in Hawaii for the first half of break, and so it would be just Lily and her parents.
Although her life at Hogwarts was improving, Lily still wasn't thoroughly enjoying herself. Marlene hadn't spoken to her ever since Halloween, and Rachel and Kaitlyn were prone to sneer at her when she passed them in the hallways. Even Remus had acted distant towards her since then. She suspected this had something to do with Potter and Black.
She was starting to get really annoyed with them, just last week they had put a simple sleeping draught in her pumpkin juice and she fell asleep at breakfast. She missed learning the repairing charm in charms. Although she had previously taught it to herself, she was annoyed all the same. Also, she didn't understand what business hers and Remus' friendship was of theirs. They had no right to boss Remus around and tell him who he could be friends with and who he couldn't.
Lily looked down at her blank parchment. She hadn't taken a single note all throughout History of Magic. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'I'll copy them from Emmie at lunch.' She got up and went to find her friend.
She caught up with her in the Entrance Hall. "Hey Emmie?" she asked out of breath.
"Yeah?" Emmie replied, kindly.
"Can I borrow your notes from History of Magic. I looked down at my parchment at the end of the period and realized that I hadn't written a thing all class. Thinking Christmas Break, I guess." Lily explained.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I did the same thing today. I was planning on asking you for your notes, you always seem to take them." Emmie replied.
"I try." Lily said. "And thank God I do, otherwise I would fail every exam."
"If it weren't for your notes I would fail every exam too." Emmie laughed, Lily laughed with her. "I guess we can ask Remus for his notes."
"He probably didn't take any," Lily scoffed. "He was sitting with Potter and Black today, and they were talking about something or another in low voices."
"Are you guys in a fight or something?" Remus asked. "Because you guys have seemed sort of distant towards each other ever since Halloween."
"Honestly, I don't know." Lily said. "I think that Potter and Black told him not to hang out with me or something. Because I have noticed his being distance toward me ever since Halloween too."
"Why don't you try asking him about it?" Emmie suggested.
"I've tried, on many occasions. But every time I do Black or Potter seem to show up and usher him away." Lily said. "I really want to be friends with him again."
"I'm sorry." Emmie replied sympathetically. "Would you like me to ask him for notes from the both of us?"
"Would you?" Lily asked gratefully. "Thank you so much!"
James, Sirius, and Remus had finally found a use for History of Magic, besides sleeping. Since everyone, except Evans and Vance, were always either sleeping or daydreaming, nobody would ever here their conversations.
They decided to put their hour and a half of time to use by trying to figure out how to get into the secret room. Throughout the past month they had tried at least ten times to get past Dumbledore's obstacles, without success. Instead of causing them to give up, however, each time they failed to find a way in, they would become more determined to find out what had happened.
They had already looked at both the ceiling above the room and the floor beneath it and both were useless. The floor of the story above it had been blocked off from last time they had tried to get through it, and the ceiling of the story below it was too high up for them to reach. They were all three staying at Hogwarts throughout Christmas Vacation and had mad a promise to each other to find a way into the secret room by the end of break.
"I think that we should see how thick the walls are, maybe we could listen through them." James suggested.
"Dumbledore would've thought of that." Remus stated. "What if they got into an argument and some students accidentally heard?"
"True." James said. "But that would also mean that they've probably put a silencing charm around the room. Therefore we'd actually have to get into the room to hear anything."
"This is getting more confusing by the minute." Sirius said slamming his hand on the desk. "Wait, I have an idea! If the walls are thick, why don't we go in-between them? I know that they probably put a silencing charm around it and all, but it would at least give us a chance to explore the perimeter of the room. Plus, we could figure out how big the room is and such."
"Good idea, Sirius. We'll try that not tomorrow night, but the night after—the first night of Christmas Vacation. If we don't find out how to get in then, we will continue every night of break until we do. Does that sound good?" James asked.
"Actually, I've been meaning to tell you guys, I have to leave school on Monday night and probably won't be back until Wednesday. When I wrote my parents and told them that I wouldn't be coming home for Christmas, they wrote back and insisted that I at least come home for a couple of days." Remus told the boys reluctantly.
"That's okay, we'll definitely figure out how to get in there by Monday." Sirius said confidently. Because to them on that Tuesday morning, Monday seemed a long ways off.
After dinner, Lily and Emmie went into the Library to study for their Transfiguration test. It was their first practical test of the year, and they were rather nervous. "Okay," Lily said, looking in her transfiguration text, "Transform this tortoise" She said getting the tortoise out from the box of supplies Professor McGonagall had lent them, "into a teapot."
Emmie muttered the spell and pointed her wand at the teapot. Lily thought that she had done a perfect job, until the "teapot" walked across the table and fell over the edge. "Oh damn." Emmie muttered as she looked over the edge of the table and saw the teapot shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.
"That's okay." Lily coaxed, "I can fix this easily." She got up from her chair and walked over to where the teapot lay shattered. She knelt down beside the pieces and muttered "Repairo!" The pieces sprung to life and fixed themselves together perfectly. Nobody would ever need to know what had happened.
"Wow Lily!" Emmie exclaimed, "You're brilliant!"
"At Charms, maybe, but Transfiguration is a whole different story." Lily said before sitting down and trying to turn the teapot back into a tortoise, without success.
About a half hour later, when both of the girls had mastered turning the teapot into a tortoise and back again, Emmie spoke up, "Hey Lily, I was going to ask you, what are you doing over Christmas Eve?"
"Ermm…my sister will be in Hawaii with a friend, so it'll be just me and my parents. Why?" Lily asked.
"Well, every year my neighbors, who are muggles, have a Christmas party on Christmas Eve, and they always tell us we can invite whoever we want. Well, I was wondering if you and your parents would like to come." Emmie suggested.
"That sound fun!" Lily said. "I'll have to post my parents and see though. Where do you guys live?"
"Number 7, Swiffstin Lane." Emmie recited. "Make sure to tell your parents their muggles though, and so they can't use any magic while we're there."
"I don't think that'll be a problem." Lily answered. "My parents are muggles too."
"Oh okay!" Emmie said happily, "That solves that problem then."
Lily went to get their next project out of the box, while Emmie took a second to look around the Library. She saw Remus at another table, trying, and failing, to master the "engorgio" charm. Turning to Lily, she suggested, "Why don't you go help Remus with his Charms?"
"Why me?" Lily asked, looking up at Remus for a quick second before continuing to rummage through the box.
"Because you're the best witch in our year at Charms, and last I heard, Remus was still your friend." Emmie said, exasperatedly.
"I think he can figure it out by himself." Lily said, taking out a box of matches.
"You know you're going to have to start talking to him again at some point." Emmie pointed out.
"He's the one that stopped talking; he's the one that can start again." Lily said stubbornly.
"Maybe there's more to the story than you know." Emmie stated.
"Maybe you should ask him about it. You're the one that cares so much." Lily said, now trying to make her match turn into a needle.
"You know," Emmie said, "I don't care. You go ahead and not talk to him ever again. I'm still friends with him. I was just trying to look in your best interests." She then grabbed a match out of the box Lily had, and transfigured it into a perfect needle.
With that, Lily got up and walked over to where Remus was sitting. She supposed he hadn't seen her, because he hadn't turned around. She cleared her through, he didn't even move. She waited a couple of minutes before finally speaking. "So, had laryngitis lately? Haven't heard much from you."
"What?" Remus asked, looking up at her with a look of bewilderment on his face.
"Why haven't you been talking to me?" Lily asked.
"I thought you didn't want me to." Remus said simply.
It was Lily's turn to look bewildered. "What?" she exclaimed. "Wherever did you get that idea?"
"James said that Rachel said that you said that you thought that we shouldn't talk for a while, after what happened at the Halloween feast." Remus explained.
"What? I said not such thing! You tell Potter that he is a lying asshole and that he should keep his big fat head out of other peoples business. Better yet, I'll tell him." With that, she stormed out of the Library to find Potter.
Lily ran up six flights of stairs, muttered the password to the fat lady, and climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room. She took a moment to catch her breath as she looked around the common room for Potter. He had to be in here, he never went near the library, and it was too early for him to be sneaking out. Sure enough, she found him sitting on a couch with Rachel, a few seconds later. She stomped over their and turned to face the pair of them.
"Potter!" she said furiously.
"What Evans?" he asked, looking up at her, clearly annoyed.
"I need to talk to you." She leaned down, grabbed his arm, and marched him away from Rachel, all the way to the other side of the common room.
"What the hell do you want Evans?" he asked impatiently.
"I know you don't like me, and I honestly couldn't give a care. However, I really don't appreciate it when you put your big fat head into other peoples business." Lily said, looking at him furiously.
"Well, I don't appreciate it when you interrupt me in the middle of a conversation." James said, annoyed with her. "And I don't know what the hell you're talking about." He added.
"Oh, I think you do." Lily said. "Why did you tell Remus that I said I thought we should stop talking?"
"Because Rachel said you did." James shrugged.
"Rachel?" Lily asked, confused. She had been sure that it was James that was trying to ruin their friendship not Rachel. Although Rachel had never been kind to Lily, she had never been truly mean to her either. To Lily Rachel had seemed smart enough to know that Lily shouldn't be blamed for what had happened at the Halloween feast.
"Is that all?" James asked impatiently, "Or do you want to get all up in my ass about something else?"
"Erm…no…sorry" she added, before turning on her heel and going to bed.
The next morning, Lily woke up early, as usual, and headed down to breakfast. When she got down there she saw Remus and Emmie reading the front page of the Daily Profit with grim expressions on their faces. When she reached the spot where they were sitting, Remus quickly hid the front of the article from Lily's view. "Erm…Lily?" he began tentatively. "Where did you say you lived again?"
"Number 5, Private Drive, why?" Lily asked, an expression of worry coming onto her face.
"Err…well…the Green Skull…" Remus said.
"What?" Lily exclaimed. "Did it say who was killed? Was anyone by the last name of Evans killed?"
"No." Emmie said, "We checked. But some of your neighbors were." She said grimly handing Lily the article. Lily picked it up and began to read it.
The Green Skull Strikes Again
The Green Skull, writes Daily Profit reporter Dorcas Meadows, has been found yet again levitating above numbers 4, 9, and 12 Private Drive in Surrey, England. Although, all inhabitants of this vicinity are muggles, the deaths of five more people should not be taken into lightly by the wizarding world.
To better prepare yourself, lest you be put in the position of these unfortunate muggles, you should always make sure you have an alternate way to escape out of your house. Also, charm your door so that a simple "Aloha Mora" charm won't open it. Be creative: if necessary, make a password that no one but you would guess. If worst comes to worst place the Furunculous Charm upon yourselves. This will ensure your safety.
Lily stopped reading the article there because the rest of it described how to better protect yourself from being in the position of her five neighbors on Private Drive. She skimmed the article to find out who died. She found the names in the very last paragraph: Katie Cole, Lindsay Cole, Agatha Mormon, Yanci Blanchester, and Robert Blanchester. Although Lily had never known any of them that well, she knew who they were.
Katie and Lindsay Cole were two twins living with their single mom—Lily and Petunia had used to baby-sit them. Lily knew that their mother had gone to any length she could to try and give them the life she deserved. It didn't seem fair to Lily that they should be taken away from their mother like that.
Agatha Mormon was the elderly woman who lived down the street from Lily. Although she had seemed rude at times, it didn't seem fair for her to die in the hands of a wizard. She had never done anything to deserve it.
Yanci and Robert Blanchester were the newly wedded couple who had moved in a couple of weeks before Lily had left for Hogwarts. Although Lily hadn't gotten to know them very well, the seemed like decent people. They were just starting a life together; they were planning on having a family someday. It didn't seem fair that their futures were snatched away from them, before they had a chance to live them.
Sirius and James were walking to the Great Hall for breakfast when they passed Snape and a boy James recognized as Rodolphus Lestrange. "Looks like our good friend, Snivillus." James said. "Haven't paid him a visit in a while."
"You know, you're right." Sirius said. "We'll have to repay him for all of our lost time!" he exclaimed, a sly smile spreading across his face.
"I think I have an idea." James said, seeing a mouse run across the ground. "But first I need that mouse."
"No problem." Sirius said, rolling up his sleeves and getting out his wand. "Stupefy!" he shouted, pointing his wand at the mouse. As soon as the spell hit it, it fell down, stunned.
"I sorta needed it to be alive for what I was gonna do." James explained.
"Oh, it's alive, just stunned." Sirius said. "I used to use the spell on my brother all the time when I wanted to have some peace for a few hours. Then I'd use the counter spell and threaten to curse him again if he told mum or dad."
James laughed, "That's harsh!" Then he went over and picked the mouse up by it's tail. "Okay, could you perform the counter spell now?"
Sirius went up to where James was standing and muttered "Innervate!" The mouse then sprang to life and James transfigured it into a scorpion. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Sirius asked. "Were not supposed to do cross-species transfigurations until third year."
"Dunno." James shrugged. "Was staring at Theresa Winterson when she was practicing it the other day."
"She's hot" Sirius said and James nodded. "Speaking of hot, guess who's name I saw down on staying for Christmas Break?"
"Who's?" James asked.
"Elizabeth Rapp's" Sirius asked, "I was thinking that you could talk to her for me. You know, ask her if she wanted to hook up or something."
"What about your girlfriend, Kaitlyn?" James asked.
Sirius shrugged, "She's going to Rome for Christmas, she'll never find out. Anyways, what do you plan to do with that scorpion?" Sirius asked pointedly.
"Oh, I was thinking about giving Snivillus a friendly hug, and accidentally drop this little guy down his robes." James said.
"I like it." Sirius said, then turning to where Snape and Lestrange were standing shouted "Hey Snivillus, dear old friend! Haven't seen you for a while."
"No, thank God." Snape muttered.
"What was that?" James asked.
"Nothing." Snape said. "Good to see you too Potter, Black." He claimed through gritted teeth.
James then when up and gave Snape a hug dropping the scorpion down his robes. Snape tried to push him away, but James wouldn't budge until he was certain that the scorpion had found it's way down Snape's robes. James backed away and Snape let out a high-pitched shriek. James and Sirius burst out laughing and Rodolphus just stood there staring at the scene.
Just then, Professor McGonagall came down the stairways and started from boy to boy. "Mr. Lestrange, will you be kind enough to tell me what happened?" Professor McGonagall asked. Sirius and James exchanged glances, smiles now disappearing from their faces.
"Well," Lestrange began, "Severus and I were just standing here when Potter and Black came…" That was all James and Sirius needed to hear, they new that they were in deep shit this time. Last time they had been caught tormenting Snape, McGonagall said that they would get more than just a detention and 5 points taken away from them if did anything of the sort again.
"Well, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, do you have anything to add?" Professor McGonagall asked when Lestrange had finished his story. Sirius and James shook their heads. Professor McGonagall looked down at them, an expression of utmost fury on her face. "I must say I am very disappointed in you boys, I have continually told you that your magical abilities are not to be taken into lightly…"
The lecture seemed to go on forever. Throughout the duration of it, Sirius and James just stood there, looking at there toes. "…Since I warned you not three weeks ago that if you did anything like this again I would give you more than a detention and five points taken away from you I have decided on another punishment. You will each be given a detention, fifty points will be taken away from Gryffindor, and you're banned from going to any Quidditch Games for the duration of the year. If you do anything of this sort again, you will be sent directly to the headmaster."
"Fifty points?" Sirius asked, dumbstruck.
"No more Quidditch Games?" James asked. "But Professor…"
"Don't 'But Professor' me Mr. Potter. I'd suggest that you and Mr. Black run along to breakfast." Professor McGonagall suggested. Sirius and James then went into to the Great Hall, glaring at Lestrange and Snape, who looked rather smug.
When they entered the Great Hall Rachel and Kaitlyn came up to them. "Hey!" Rachel said.
"Hey," James said, running his hand through his hair. "What's up?" he asked casually.
"Kaitlyn and I were thinking…" Rachel began.
James interrupted her, "Wait, Kaitlyn? Thinking?" he asked jovially.
"Okay fine, I thought it would nice if the four of us shared a compartment on the train ride back to Kings Cross." Rachel suggested. "Remus can sit with us too, Marlene will be sitting with Brennan Ryder. He asked her out to the last Quidditch game." Rachel explained.
"You know that sound's like a great idea," James started, "but Remus, Sirius and I are going to stay at school for Christmas. We have a project we need to work on."
"So you can you sit with us on the train?" Kaitlyn asked, confused.
"No, they're not coming on the train" Rachel explained. Then turning to James she said "I'll miss you."
"I'll miss you more." James said.
"No, I'll miss you more." Rachel argued, laughing.
"No I will."
"No I will."
"No I will." And before Rachel could say anything back, he kissed her. After they had finished kissing, James looked over to see Sirius pulling Kaitlyn away somewhere.
"Are they gonna go make out?" Rachel asked.
James shrugged. "Dunno. He never has before—Kaitlyn gave him his first kiss."
"What about me? Did I give you your first kiss?" She asked.
"That's personal information." James said, not answering her question.
"Oh my God! I so did!" Rachel exclaimed.
"Let's go eat." James suggested, feeling somewhat embarrassed.
"Good idea!" Rachel said. With that, James grabbed her and they went down to find a place to eat.
Lily was all ready to go the next morning. Lily's parents had written her to tell her not to worry about the attacks—that they and Petunia were all alright. They also told her that it wasn't her fault at all. Towards the beginning of the year, a muggle neighborhood had been attacked that had had no connection with the wizarding world. They also said that they would love to go to Emmie's neighbor's party, but they couldn't. They had previously that they would attend another party that was for adult only. However, they thought that Lily should go.
Lily and Emmie followed Molly Prewett out of the Great Hall and to some horseless carriages. Lily and Emmie piled into one they were followed by two Ravenclaw girls. The first one Lily didn't know the name of; the second one was none other than Palliva Patil. She looked around at Emmie and Lily and smiled friendlily. "Hi!" she said, happily. "I'm Palliva Patil and this is Kerry Mabel." gesturing towards her pretty black friend.
"I'm Lily Evans." Lily said.
"Yeah, I know. Listen, I've been meaning to tell you," Palliva said. "Sorry about what happened with Kyle. I had no idea that he had already asked you. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't go out with him after that."
"That's alright." Lily said. "It's no big deal."
"What do you guys want for Christmas?" Kerry asked.
"This year I asked for a camera," Emmie said, "but my parents are on somewhat of a tight budget this Christmas, so I'm not sure if I'll get one."
"I didn't really know what to ask for, I don't really need anything. I would've asked for clothes, but neither my mum nor my dad have any taste, so I just asked for money. Last year my brother talked me into asking our parents for the joint present of three Quidditch poles so he and, supposedly, I could practice with them. He offered to do my chores for an entire summer. However, when summer came around, he denied ever offering any such thing. Also, he never lets me play with them. What about you Lily?" Palliva said.
"Erm…well, I didn't really ask for anything, my parents always know what to get me. Though I suppose that it will be somewhat harder for them to pick me out anything this year since muggle things don't work at Hogwarts." Lily said, the thought coming into her head for the first time. "What about you…erm…Kerry?" For a split second she had forgotten her name.
"I asked for a broomstick, and I think that I might get a Comet 100. They just came out two weeks ago, in time for the holidays." Kerry explained.
"A broomstick?" Lily asked. "But aren't first years not allowed? Potter and Black got their broomsticks confiscated weeks ago."
"No, I wouldn't use it at school. I'd use it during vacations and over the summer to practice for next year. Then I'd already have used it enough for when I try out for the house team." Kerry said.
"You wanna be on the house team then. What position do you play?" Emmie asked.
"I think that I'll play seeker because Diggory's leaving next year. But I wouldn't mind playing chaser either." Kerry said.
They talked about Quidditch all until their carriage stopped at Hogsmeade Station and boarded the train. As Lily went up the steps onto the train, she thought, 'Wow! I've already been at Hogwarts for half of a year.'
A/N: So there's chapter 9. I really hope that you're enjoying this fic so far! The next chapter will talk about the duration of break. James, Sirius and Remus have a lot of fun over Christmas breaks and Lily has fun seeing her parents again, but a scary experience, scars her for life…
I'm writing this chapter right now and I've only posted through chapter 3, so I haven't read all of the reviews, so I don't know what questions you guys will ask in the future. But here are some answers to some questions you might have:
What about Peter Pettigrew? At this point Peter isn't really friends with James, Remus and Sirius—they don't really know each other that well. You'll hear his name mentioned a few times, but that's about it. Peter is better friends with a boy named Taylor Hall right now. However something happens in second year that sort of ruins Peter and Taylor's friendship. Peter starts to hang out with them towards the end of second year, but they don't really become friends until third year.
Will Lily and James start talking more? Ummm… Not really in this book. In this book Remus is sort of the person in the middle of them. In future books especially in books three and four, they will talk a lot more.
When do they find out Remus is a Werewolf? I have plans for that…
If you have any questions, feel free to leave them as well! I'll try to answer them as best I can, as long as it doesn't ruin anything: ) Even you don't have any questions, if you left a review that'd be great!