Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
by Liza Lupin
Disclaimer:I am not JK Rowling. I do notownHarry Potter and Co.I don't own anyone but Lily and Spook!
EDIT: Revised June 21, 2005
Chapter One: Sirius Dreams
It was a windy, rainy June afternoon in New York City. The sun was obscured by the dark storm clouds hanging gloomily overhead. The rain pelted down from the sky, saturating anyone unfortunate enough to be outside in a matter of seconds. The wind cruelly directed raindrops into any available opening in between layers of clothing, sending water down the back of a short redhead's neck as she tried to pry open the door to her apartment without dropping her groceries. So it was a sopping wet and somewhat irritated Lily Anderson that stepped through the threshold into her small, two-room apartment and dumped her car keys and the results of her low-budget shopping trip onto the kitchen counter.
"If there's anyone listening up there," she said, glaring up through the ceiling and the clouds she knew were beyond, "I would really appreciate some sunshine!" She sighed as a loud clap of thunder rumbled overhead. "All right, I can take a hint," she muttered. As it was June, the rain was a welcome reprieve from the summer heat. Unfortunately, it had been raining for going on four days now, and enough was enough. Lily was ready for the sunshine again, even if would mean really awful humidity after all the rain. Shrugging philosophically, Lily pushed her wet auburn hair over her shoulders and began putting the groceries away.
Nineteen-year-old Lily was petite for her age, but seemed much larger because of her very outgoing and aggressive personality. She wasn't conventionally pretty, with her rather large nose, but her features fit her face. She had owlish, expressive eyes that shifted from a flirty medium gray to furious glittering onyx, and had wavy hair that was dark red when it wasn't soaked to black, reaching down to her waist.A meow from her feet turned her attention to her roommate: a solid white kitten except for a black spot on the crown of his head. She reached down and scooped him up, pulling a can of cat food out of one of the grocery bags. She opened the can and set cat and food down by the fridge, out of the way.
"How was your day, Spook?" she asked the kitten, putting the milk in the refrigerator. "Mine was okay – Toni came in and we had lunch at this great Italian place. About a million people were in the store today, but we got a new load of paperbacks today..."
She continued talking to the kitten, chattering about her day as she shelved the groceries. When they had both finished their respective activities, they wandered into Lily's bedroom to catch the weather forecast. Lily was happy to learn the rain would clear up in a day or so, and began humming to herself as she gathered up her pajamas and headed to the shower. She fell asleep quickly to the sound of Spook's purring.
Dream Sequence
Lily smiled happily as she recognized the familiar blank grayness and roiling smoke of her favorite dream. She had always had odd dreams of this place, since before she could remember. She had found early in her life that, if she wanted it enough, she could do or have just about anything she could imagine in these dreams. It was her place to relax, and get away from the pressures of reality for as long as she needed - time meant nothing here. Scrunching her nose up and closing her eyes in concentration, Lily worked her will.
Cautiously peeping open one eye and then the other, she realized she had succeeded. Lily smiled widely as she saw her new dream environment. She was now in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, surrounded by ancient stone and tapestries depicting the four Hogwarts houses. Oddly enough, it was a little different than she had imagined. Even encircled by the castle's majesty, she just looked briefly at everything before wishing up a big, overstuffed leather recliner in place of the Head Table. Lily settled in and closed her eyes again.
Lily silently concentrated on the person she wanted to bring into her dream. She built up a mental picture of him - hair just so, and with that slightly shaggy look, and blue eyes with that tell-tale hint of shadow... So intent was she on imagining every aspect of his personality she could imagine, she missed the very quiet 'poof' noise he made when he arrived.
"Who are you!" The startled question broke Lily out of her reverie. The nineteen-year-old's eyes shot open and she grinned mischievously. He had the fierce look borne of bravado, and managed to keep his confusion out of everything but his eyes.
"I'm Lily Anderson. Nice to meet you, Padfoot," she calmly replied. She stuck out her hand for him to shake. "Just sit down," she said, wishing into existence another armchair before continuing, "and listen for a second, okay? I'm going to explain some things to you, because Harry had some problems with this, too." Sirius Black's cobalt blue eyes now showed more than a hint of confusion as he gingerly sat in the other chair, but she plowed on anyway. "This is a dream. I am dreaming, and you are my subconscious representation of the character Sirius Black in the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling," Lily stared at Sirius, not bothering to hide it as she looked him up and down, checking him out. "Any questions, Mr.-"
"BLACK!" yelled a plump woman with flyaway red hair. Sirius started awake, sitting straight up, and stared around the room. Why on earth was he in his mother's room (or more recently Buckbeak's), and what was that weird taste? He seemed to recall being worried about something... and what had happened to Lily? "What is the matter? I've had Harry and Ron trying to wake you for the past ten minutes! Why on earth did you fall asleep up here?" Sirius looked around confusedly, trying to remember why he was laying down on a dusty bed covered in hippogriff feathers...
He smiled slightly at Harry and Ron standing in the doorway, Harry with a concerned look on his face, and Ron with a rather unconcerned one.
"Molly, is Dumbledore coming for dinner tonight?" Sirius asked as he regained his composure and plucked downy feathers out of his shaggy black hair (and one out of his mouth... 'That explains the taste,' he thought). Mrs. Weasley nodded, and looked at the convict with grudging concern.
"Are you sure you're quite all right?" she asked one last time. He nodded slowly, and she walked to the door. "Very well then. Come along downstairs. Supper's ready." She bustled her way off down the hall, dragging the two boys and leaving Sirius to ponder his odd dream.
"Bla. . . Now where did he get off to?" said Lily, smile fading as she saw Sirius just poof away. She scowled, muttering obscenities under her breath, before she saw a small golden thread originating in a golden tangle of more threads in Sirius's last location and seemingly heading off through the castle walls.
Lily stepped forward and curiously touched the tip of her index finger to the thread. There was a nauseating tugging sensation behind her navel, and suddenly she was speeding away, being yanked through a swirling mass of colors bleeding and blending together.
She came to a stop in a musty old room with a huge... thing in it.
Lily promptly fainted.
Sirius slowly walked into the grimy kitchen, mulling over his odd dream. He stopped suddenly, remembering one seemingly insignificant detail - Lily had mentioned Harry.
Sirius's mouth curved down into a scowl as he went over to his godson's chair, grabbing the backrest and spinning it on one leg so that Harry almost toppled out before facing his rather distracted godfather. Remus Lupin, looking very tired the day after the full moon, smiled at him, remembering all the times Sirius had done just that same trick to all of their friends back in the days of the Marauders. Harry's mother had absolutely loathed it, and had squealed loudly every time Sirius had been able to sneak up behind her and perform it. (Which only motivated him to do it more, of course.)
"Harry, I've just talked to Lily. Why didn't you tell me that you'd spoken with her?"
Silence permeated the kitchen at his question, and Sirius could have sworn he heard a cricket chirp.
Remus stood up cautiously and approached Sirius, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Lily, Sirius? Where did you... see Lily?" he asked, looking at the dark-haired man worriedly.
"Moony, sit back down. I'm not talking about Lily Potter!" Sirius snapped at the man. Remus looked hurt, and he shot the werewolf an apologetic look. He turned back to his godson, and his face hardened again. "Harry, why didn't you tell anyone you've been having dreams like that?"
Harry just looked at Sirius guiltily. He was in for a long talk.
Lily regained consciousness all at once, to be confronted with a very large beak of some kind in her face. Barely resisting the urge to scream, lest the animal decide a little bit of Lily might make a nice snack, she slowly and carefully wriggled to the other side of the bed. She didn't notice another little golden thread and thread tangle until she had sat up into its path. She was promptly dragged away at the same break-neck pace she had experienced before. She was soon able to see she was being pulled through an incredibly dusty and grungy old house.
"You regularly dream about beautiful strangers in the Great Hall?" Lily could hear Sirius shouting as she was pulled right through a wall. She emerged on the other side to see Sirius's back, bent over someone in a chair and shouting in their face.
"You think I'm beautiful? Sirius, I'm flattered," said Lily. Her voice sounded odd in her ears, hollow and echoing.
"You think I'm beautiful? Sirius, I'm flattered." Sirius turned around as he heard her voice. Floating an inch off the ground was the shimmering, translucent figure of Lily. She walked – eerily not quite touching the ground - around Sirius to peek at Harry and then ruffle Harry's hair. "How ya doin'?" she chirruped.
Harry's mouth opened and closed several times before he was able to croak out a reply. "Fine, you?"
"I'm great, babe. Where are we?" she asked. "Cool old house, huh? Seems to need some serious cleaning, but there's potential." She stared around the room curiously, seemingly oblivious to the stares the was getting from the various dinner guests.
"STUPEFY!" yelled a grizzled old man Lily figured just had to be Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. His shout startled everyone in the room. The bolt of red light passed right out the doorway to the living room through Lily. She giggled.
"That tickled! You really are a paranoid old coot, aren't ya?" Harry got up and put a hand over Lily's mouth. Surprisingly, she felt solid to him.
"Behave, or I'll be forced to tell them about that incident with Spook and the 'haunted' closet," he said solemnly, shaking a finger at her. Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and the twins all looked at each other and grinned; this was the most playful they'd seen Harry in a long time, and they were happy for him... even if he was being playful with a complete stranger. They giggled as Lily mock-glared at and then tackled Harry after he winked at her, straddling his thighs with her translucent legs and attacking his sides with her fingers. "Lily! Lily, stop! I'll sick Ripper on you!" Harry gasped out through his laughing.
"Excuse me, Mister Potter, but there is going to be an Order Meeting in a few moments. If you would mind postponing or relocating your, ah, activities?" said a kind, tired voice from the door. Lily, still straddling Harry, turned to see who it was. She grinned as she saw the wizened old wizard behind her. She stood and made as if to go introduce herself to him, when she abruptly fell to her knees on the floor. Harry rushed over to her, but froze at the intense expression of pain on her face.
"Damn it," she whispered, before disappearing, leaving only a pile of gold glitter to prove she had ever existed.
A/N: The title of this I got from a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, called "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal".
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