Chapter 50 Uncharted Territory
When they'd initially found out they were going to have a baby, Lily and James had both been inclined to view it as a good thing. But as the weeks went by, they started to feel like they just may have gotten in over their heads this time.
Lily visited a Healer at St Mungo's and a Muggle doctor, both of whom confirmed that she was in fact pregnant and that the baby would be due in early to mid August. Excited though they were, Lily and James decided to put off telling people for a bit in order to give themselves time to get used to the whole idea. However, it turned out that keeping this particular secret wasn't in the cards.
It was during one of their semi-weekly Friday night dinners with their former fellow Gryffindors at the Leaky Cauldron that Lily inadvertently announced their secret. The conversation was centred almost exclusively round Frank and Alice, who had been the subject of last week's emergency Order meeting. They'd been on a routine Order mission the night before, tailing Lucius Malfoy in the hopes of catching him attempting to recruit Death Eater spies.
After countless nights of pointless or dead-end tailing, they'd finally struck it lucky; Malfoy had been meeting with a group of four masked, hooded Death Eaters. Before they could come to their reason for gathering, one of them, a short, rather round figure, had whispered something to Malfoy. Apparently it'd been something along the lines of "Frank and Alice Longbottom are spying on us," because the five Death Eaters had attacked them.
Frank and Alice had defended themselves well enough; one of the Death Eaters had managed to escape, but they'd incapacitated two of them and were dueling with the remaining two when another Dark wizard joined them unexpectedly. Lord Voldemort himself, to be precise.
He'd immediately launched a string of hexes on Alice and Frank unmercifully, keeping them so occupied that the other Death Eaters managed to escape with the injured two. Voldemort himself had disappeared shortly after, leaving Frank and Alice with a few bruises and minor curse aftereffects, but essentially all right.
"One thing's certain: Voldemort didn't want us to see whoever was behind those Death Eater masks," Frank concluded as he finished telling the story for the umpteenth time. "It definitely looks as though we may have stumbled upon our spies."
"And it also seems like that short one who knew you were there was one of them," Kathleen put in shrewdly.
"Why are you lot so sure Malfoy was meeting with spies?" Peter asked, keeping his voice carefully neutral. "It could've been any sort of Death Eater business at all; I'm sure there isn't much of it that Voldemort would want us to see."
"We think Malfoy was meeting with spies because we asked him politely and that's what he told us," Alice snarled sarcastically, glaring at Peter. "Honestly, you were AT the bloody Order meeting, Peter! Clean out your ears once in a while!"
"The short one did rather seem to know someone was there," Frank explained patiently, shooting Peter an apologetic glance. Catching sight of Alice's face, however, Frank turned the glance into a very unconvincing yawn. "We just aren't sure whether that means he or she was the actual Order spy or if they'd just been warned by the Order spy," Frank finished, eyeing Alice warily.
Ever since she'd become pregnant, Alice, generally sweet-natured and only rarely irritable, had undergone what seemed to be a personality reversal; she was inclined to bite everyone's head off for no apparent reason most of the time and only nice on occasion. Everyone and everything appeared to annoy her, especially men; she tolerated Frank rather begrudgingly and other males not at all, especially Peter, James, and Sirius. Most of the others privately wondered how poor Frank was coping, but no one dared ask for fear of Alice overhearing.
Before that particular situation could escalate, however, dinner arrived, distracting everyone. Normally the appetizing smells wafting from the tray would only have reminded Lily of how hungry she was. Today, however, to her horror, they were making her a bit nauseous. More than a bit, actually. In fact, Lily was very much afraid that she was about to sick up, right there in front of everyone.
As unobtrusively as possible, Lily clamped her napkin over her mouth. I am NOT going to vomit, Lily told herself sternly. I will not. I positively refuse.
Unfortunately, no one had informed either her stomach or her rioting hormones about this, and Lily was forced to concede that she was in fact going to vomit. It was now just a matter of whether she was going to do it in a toilet or on the dinner table.
Hand clamped over her mouth like a vice, Lily abandoned all dignity in her mad dash for the loo.
"Lily?" James asked worriedly, starting after her.
"Try not to be any thicker than you can help, James," Alice snarled at James as she pushed past him on her way to the ladies' toilets. "What're you going to do, shout encouragement from the corridor?"
James resisted the preservational instinct that told him to run away from Alice and held his ground. "She might need me," he said stubbornly.
"We'll go see what's wrong," Morwenna interjected smoothly, stepping between Alice and James. And before James could argue further, Alice had shot into the loo, Morwenna, Dorcas, and Kathleen hot on her trail. James sighed and went back to the table, wondering how Frank put up with his genuinely scary wife. He sincerely hoped that pregnancy wouldn't make Lily end up like Alice
Lily eased back from the toilet and, momentarily ignoring all germ considerations, sat on the floor, too dizzy to stand up right away. She closed her eyes and tried to take deep breaths, which unfortunately only seemed to make her sick again, and she got her head over the toilet just in time.
Clammy and exhausted, Lily gingerly sat back again. "Why are you doing this to me NOW?" she asked her stomach resentfully. "The nausea wasn't supposed to happen for another two weeks, and that's definitely one area where I wish you'd been a late bloomer –"
"WHAT?!" a familiar voice shrieked. All of a sudden the stall door hurtled open, and Lily sat blinking up at Alice.
"Hi," Lily said weakly, hoping Alice hadn't connected the dots.
"You're pregnant," Alice said almost accusingly.
"Er –" Lily glanced round her wildly as though seeking help.
"You just said that the nausea wasn't supposed to happen for another two weeks," Alice went on. She threw her arms round Lily in an exuberant hug. "We're going to be pregnant together!"
"What're you shrieking about, Alice?" Kathleen inquired, having just arrived on the scene.
"Lily's pregnant!" Alice announced joyfully.
"REALLY?!" Kathleen squealed. "That's brilliant! Oh, congratulations!"
"Why are you congratulating Lily?" Dorcas wanted to know, she and Morwenna crowding in the doorway behind Kathleen.
Kathleen turned to them. "Lily's pregnant!" she exclaimed
"That's amazing!" Morwenna shrieked.
"Wow!" Dorcas grinned from ear to ear.
"Congratulations!" they bellowed together at Lily from the corridor.
"Thank you," Lily replied rather lamely. This wasn't good. Her parents didn't even know yet, neither did James'. But before Lily could ask her friends to keep this news to themselves, the nausea returned in full force, and Lily was forced to pull away from Alice in a bit of a hurry.
"She's being sick again!" Alice informed the girls in the corridor delightedly. "Can you believe this? Lily and I will have babies together!" Alice threw her arms round the other three in a rare burst of good cheer.
"Er – what's going on?" Frank called. This unexpected excitement over Lily's upset stomach was causing a bit of concern amongst the wizards, or some of them, anyway, and Frank had been sent to investigate.
"Lily's pregnant!" Alice blurted happily. She beamed at everyone. "Isn't it wonderful?"
"What?" Sirius asked, hoping he'd heard wrong. His eyes met James' in mutual understanding. "Didn't quite catch that."
"Lily's pregnant," Peter, who had overheard, reported before Remus could stop him.
"Tactful, Peter," Remus hissed.
"What?" Peter stared at Remus uncomprehendingly for a moment before realization dawned. "Oh." His normally small eyes grew rounder and wider. "OHHH. Sorry about that, James."
"What do you mean, you're sorry?" James felt the need to defend his wife and child.
"Well, did you – er – KNOW?" Peter asked awkwardly, flushing.
"Of course I knew!" James snapped, turning an interesting shade of scarlet. "What're you trying to say?"
"Remus made me think it!" Peter defended himself. Remus merely shook his head.
"Shut it, Wormtail, before Prongs shuts it for you," Sirius advised cheerfully.
"Congratulations, James," Frank said hastily as Peter opened his mouth. Frank looked as though he really meant it, too; clearly he was overjoyed to have another father-to-be to commiserate with.
The congratulations made the rounds of everyone present at the table and started all over again when the witches rejoined them.
"You okay?" James asked warily as Lily slid into her seat next to him, decidedly pale and drained.
"Uh-huh," was all Lily could manage.
"Whatever happened to waiting a while to break the news?" James wanted to know, reassured that he was safe for the moment from any Alice-esque bursts of man hating.
"Alice overheard me talking to myself and guessed," Lily explained, taking the glass of water James was offering to her.
"Why didn't you ask her to keep it a secret?" James asked reasonably.
"Sorry, James, I was too busy trying not to puke all over her to do much damage control," Lily snapped. "Besides," she added with a bit less venom, "look at how happy it's made her. She hasn't shouted at anyone in the last five minutes at least."
"True," James admitted, staring at Alice covertly. She did indeed seem to be delighted, almost more delighted than they were, for Merlin's sake.
And Alice's happiness didn't diminish over the next few weeks. She spent every possible extra moment with Lily, discussing everything pertaining to babies and pregnancy. Lily was mostly grateful for Alice's presence and advice as her pregnancy symptoms increased. Sadly, Lily's nausea had gotten worse, if anything, and dizzy spells, constant exhaustion, and the perpetual need to pee had joined it. Though Lily didn't go to the loo half as frequently as Alice, who seemed to need to go every fifteen minutes or so.
Worse than any of this (except maybe for the nausea) were the hormones. Lily, not generally a terribly emotional person, now found herself bawling over the stupidest things. She cried when they ran out of milk and sobbed when she accidentally put a shoe on the wrong foot. James had come in toward the end of the shoe debacle and Lily had, to her horror, burst into tears again while she'd been explaining to it James and consequently had relived the entire episode.
For his part, James was completely unequipped to deal with this whole pregnancy situation, but he did his best to be helpful. He read up on the subject and told Lily constantly that what she was doing was normal. Lily seemed to find this information comforting, so James branched out a bit, telling her what, according to the various books, she should be feeling and doing and when.
This didn't go over quite as well, but James just chalked it up to pregnancy mood swings and bought Lily ginger tea and biscuits to help with the nausea, continually brought her small meals and tried to persuade Lily to take folic acid and eat bananas.
The bananas were Sirius' bit to be helpful after he'd read somewhere that potassium was supposed to increase a woman's chances of having a male baby. United in their common desire for a future Marauder to train, James and Sirius had decided that this banana theory couldn't hurt and had gone out to buy all of the bananas and banana-related products they could find to feed to Lily. They'd reached a mutual understanding not to tell Lily exactly whose idea the bananas had been since they had a suspicion that if she knew who had discovered this potassium idea, Lily might be inclined to be skeptical of it.
On top of everything else, Lily and James had decided that they had to tell their parents about Lily's pregnancy. They had been planning to wait till Christmas, but Lily's unfortunate mishap at the Leaky Cauldron made it necessary to inform them before they heard it from Lily and James' friends or any of the undoubtedly many people their mates had told by now.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans were, as expected, just as excited about Lily's pregnancy as they had been about Petunia's and made enthusiastic plans for their future grandchild. Mrs. Evans did warn Lily, however, that Petunia was "a bit put out" by the fact that Lily would be having a baby round the same time she was. James, who had been looking forward to antagonizing Petunia, was disappointed at first that she was only a bit put out until Lily, who was used to her mother's diplomatic tendencies, explained that "a bit put out" translated to "on the rampage." James felt loads better after that.
Mr. and Mrs. Potter were more restrained with their enthusiasm at first. James chalked this up to a combination of worries over the safety of the wizarding world, Lily and James' relative youth, and concern that their irresponsible, troublemaking son would soon be molding an innocent mind. But excitement over having a grandchild eventually won out, and Mrs. Potter began to bombard Lily and James' flat with owls bearing books on pregnancy and child-rearing, food, and lists of names to consider. Mr. Potter gave Lily and James a "think of raising a child the way you would a funnel" lecture, which they laughed themselves sick over afterward (literally, in Lily's case).
The thought of that funnel lecture still brought a grin to James' face days later as he recalled it. The smile faded, however, when he reached the door of his and Lily's flat; one of the worst things about having a pregnant wife was that he never knew what he'd find when he came home. Mostly James didn't mind the new books and food from both of their mums, but he sincerely hoped he wouldn't find Lily throwing up or crying. Or Alice, for that matter.
James clutched the bag of bananas he'd stopped on his way home from work to buy and pushed the door open apprehensively.
No sign of Alice that James could see, but then he didn't see Lily either. James frowned in worry; he was late coming home from work, Lily had had plenty of time to get here from her own job. Then James heard the sound of retching coming from the bathroom and sighed in resignation. Lily was home, all right.
"Lils?" James called, approaching the bathroom cautiously. "You all right?"
"Yeah," Lily's voice answered. When she came emerged a couple of minutes later, James could see she'd been crying as well.
"Did you put your shoe on the wrong foot again?" James asked carefully, keeping his expression neutral. It had not helped matters last time when he'd burst out laughing.
"No," Lily replied, picking up a tissue. "Alice told me the most horrible thing earlier."
"What?" James asked, bracing himself for labour horror stories involving things he did not want to know the clinical names for.
"She-she told me that," Lily took a fortifying breath before she could continue, "she wants to n-name her b-baby –"Lily broke off, dabbing at her eyes.
"Go on," James relaxed a bit.
"She wants to name her baby Nebudchadnezzer," Lily finished at last.
"WHAT?!" James exclaimed, sitting up. "Where in the bloody hell did she come up with Neb-Nebuca –"
"Nebudchadnezzer," Lily supplied tiredly. "She says it's in the Bible."
"I reckon we shouldn't be surprised, really," James said comfortingly, putting an arm round Lily. "After all, she named her owl Myron."
"That's true," Lily winced a bit, remembering. Unable to stop herself, she felt the tears well up again. "Bloody hormones," Lily muttered, fetching a fresh tissue.
"Yeah, well, I just might cry too," James said indignantly. "What a horrible thing to do to your own child!"
"He's going to get teased," Lily said in a small voice, starting to cry again.
"It'll be all right," James said a bit helplessly. "Frank won't let her name their baby Nebooca – oh, sod it – that name."
Lily shot James a scornful glance. "I'd like to see Frank stop her, or rather I wouldn't," she pointed out. "Alice is right scary."
"Good point," James admitted. He searched for something else to distract Lily from her tears. "Er – want a banana?" he asked hopefully, brandishing one at her.
"What is it with you and bananas?" Lily asked suspiciously, eyeing the yellow fruit as though it might be about to eat her.
"Nothing," James maintained innocently, putting the banana away. Lily really didn't need to hear about Sirius' potassium theory right now.
Christmas arrived, and Lily, James, Sirius, and Mr. and Mrs. Evans all went to James' parents' house for the holiday. Petunia, still in her snit, had decided that she and Vernon would spend Christmas with his family where she would be the only pregnant person present. Lily, who had not been looking forward to the confrontation with her sister, was so relieved by this news that she actually ate a banana.
However, this respite didn't last long; the combined powers of Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Evans drove Lily mad within the first half-hour of her arrival. The two expectant grandmothers gave her endless pregnancy advice and made her cup after cup of ginger tea, which did not help her bladder situation at all. On top of that, Mr. Potter kept asking her if she needed to sit down and her father continually tried to persuade her to eat things. Fed up, Lily finally told the assembled company that she was going to the loo and sneaked off to the kitchen to hide with Wendell the house elf.
James and Sirius, who had gone out to inspect their old Quidditch pitch, found her there a little while later when they came in search of mince pies. Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, nibbling on a mince pie and laughing as Wendell regaled her with stories about James as a child, both before and during his Hogwarts years.
".........ears shriveled for almost an entire week!" Wendell was saying as they came in.
"Did he say why his ears were shriveled?" Lily asked, lips twitching a bit.
"Master James said he'd eaten a shrivelfig because he wanted to see what would happen," Wendell said in his squeaky little voice, shaking his head. "Wendell could have told him what would happen, but Master James likes to find things out for himself. There was another time, when Master James was ten –"
"Wendell!" James cut the house elf off, his face bright red.
"Well, Miss Lily has a right to know, Master James," Wendell said innocently. "Miss Lily's baby might do mad things like Master James did."
Lily and Sirius burst into laughter at this statement, practically wheezing as James shepherded them out of the kitchen, his face almost purple with humiliation.
"I can't believe you didn't tell anyone I shriveled your ears," Lily gasped as soon as they were safely out of earshot. "It's really rather sweet."
"Sweet?" Sirius snorted, clutching a stitch in his side. "Prongs couldn't have told anyone why you'd shriveled his ears without explaining how a love potion had gotten into your goblet."
"What else did Wendell tell you?" James asked, in control of his mortification enough now to speak.
"Nothing much," Lily fought to keep a straight face. "But he did mention something about an owl named Mr. Owl." Lily and Sirius collapsed into giggles once more.
"Guess you won't be naming the baby, Prongs," Sirius gasped.
"Definitely not," Lily agreed, still giggling. "I refuse to call our child Mr. Baby."
"I was six," James protested, blushing again. "And at least I never named anything Nebudchadnezzer."
"What?" Sirius started, forgetting to laugh. Lily, on the other hand, began to chortle in a decidedly hysterical manner. Or at least, she did before she clamped a hand to her mouth and raced hell-bent down the corridor in search of a toilet.
"Who named something Nebudchadnezzer?" Sirius asked again.
"You don't want to know, mate," James replied sagely, clapping a hand on Sirius' shoulder.
Lily and James were sitting at home in their flat a few days later when there was a knock at the door. Exchanging a wary glance with Lily, James went to open the door, his wand ready, and relaxed visibly when he saw Remus and Kathleen. "Come in," James invited. "Oy, Lils! Remus and Kathleen are here!"
"Hi," Lily greeted their mates, then frowned as she noticed their grim expressions. "Is something wrong?"
Remus and Kathleen exchanged a glance, neither of them wanting to speak. Finally it was Remus who opened his mouth. "There's been another attack," he said finally.
"How bad?" James asked, coming to sit beside Lily.
"Bad," Remus replied grimly. "Fabian and Gideon Prewett are dead." Lily gasped, the only sound in the room.
"What happened?" James wanted to know, gripping Lily's hand.
Gideon and Fabian had been checking up on a group of Muggle borns that the Order had helped to hide, making sure that they were reasonably safe and had everything they needed.
No one had suspected anything was amiss until the Prewett brothers had failed to check in with Moody after their visit. Moody had gone to the house to find the six hidden Muggle borns dead in the house and both of the Prewett brothers lying in the garden, the Dark Mark hovering high above it all.
"We don't know for sure what happened," Remus finished the story tiredly. "Moody thinks it's likely that one group went into the house while another attacked Gideon and Fabian in the garden, but no one knows for sure."
"Someone knows," Kathleen said viciously, speaking up for the first time. "That bloody spy knows, and so do all of the Death Eaters. Probably having a good laugh, the lot of them, over killing two of the best wizards of our generation."
"Kathleen –"Remus began worriedly, but she cut him off.
"No," Kathleen waved off Remus' concern. "I'm sorry. I think I just –should go right now. I need to be by myself." And before anyone could say any more, Kathleen had rushed out of the flat.
"Does Alice know?" Lily asked Remus quietly.
"Yeah," Remus replied, his eyes still on the door Kathleen had disappeared through. "Dumbledore and Moody told her last night. Frank and his parents are with her."
"How long before the word gets out?" James asked. He felt strangely numb and didn't like the feeling at all.
"It might be out already," Remus answered, shrugging. "But if you mean officially – Kathleen said the Daily Prophet will have it on the front page in today's edition."
Kathleen's information had been right on, and by evening, the Prewett brothers' deaths were all the wizarding world could talk about. Both Gideon and Fabian had been highly respected, and the mysterious circumstances surrounding their deaths and their presence at the safe house caused a great deal of speculation.
Alice said very little to anyone, but she appeared determinedly for Auror training and Order meetings despite anything anyone said to her to persuade her to stay home and rest; even Mrs. Longbottom had been unable to sway her.
Alice – along with Frank, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Kathleen, Morwenna, Dorcas, and Peter – had questioned everyone she could think of, but the answers were all the same.
It looked as though no one had lived to tell the tale of what had happened to Gideon and Fabian Prewett.
January 1980 – Two Weeks Later
Severus Snape pulled the hood of his cloak down to further obscure his face as he strode briskly down the sidewalk, intent on his destination.
The first time he'd come here, it had been pure coincidence. Snape had been going for a walk in an attempt to clear his head of the thousands of unwanted images that swirled in it, nothing more.
But since that first time, he'd come here often, whenever his situation became intolerable. Sometimes he'd see her, sometimes he wouldn't, and when he did, he was comforted by the memory of an offer she'd once made him, an offer of help if he ever got into trouble again. And just remembering that, just knowing that help and normalcy and access to Dumbledore was attainable had often helped him to get himself under control again. It was like looking over a precipice; there was comfort in the knowledge that a way out existed, but it was also a reality check, a reminder of how final this way out would ultimately be. And Snape needed the reality check as much as the comfort.
Snape strode faster, trying to keep up with his racing mind. But this time it was different, this time would not be just a reality check. He was going to take the plunge, so to speak.
It was the Prewetts' death that had done it. Snape had been there, he had seen it and heard it and tried not to participate in it. But he'd been powerless to stop it, had watched as others did it.
He'd known Gideon and Fabian Prewett, had always respected them and perhaps even admired them in a way, despite their dissimilar loyalties. They'd always taken top honours, had been Prefects and Head Boys and belonged to a distinguished pureblood family. Aside from that, Snape had never known them to bully younger students or get into confrontations with Slytherins. The Prewett brothers had been astounding wizards and decent people, a rarity, in Snape's experience.
Which was why Snape hadn't cared to watch them die. But the Dark Lord had ordered it after receiving the information from his source inside the Order of the Phoenix. He'd also ordered Snape to go, saying he didn't participate enough in that aspect of being a Death Eater and that he needed to rid himself of his weaknesses.
Whatever the Dark Lord ordered must be done, so Snape had of course complied and Apparated to the Order's safe house, mask in place and wand ready.
There had been two teams, one for the Mudbloods and one for the Prewetts. Snape had been assigned to the Prewetts' team, which had caused him some apprehension, but he'd assumed that since there were five others, he'd be able to get away with very little participation.
He had been getting away with it, but Dolohov, exhilarated with the attack, had shoved Snape forward, telling him to take a turn at it. Severus had stumbled, and his mask had fallen off.
Gideon and Fabian had been bad off but still fighting back to back, facing the circle of Death Eaters as they closed in on them. But as Snape had lurched forward, fumbling for his mask, Fabian Prewett had spotted him.
"Severus?" he'd asked, his voice bewildered. "Severus Snape?"
Snape had jammed his mask and stumbled backward, ice water in his veins. He'd never been called by his name during one of these attacks, and the experience had been stunning, horrifying.
"It wasn't me," he'd wanted, stupidly, to say to Fabian Prewett. "I'm not doing it, I'm only here because my master ordered me to be. I'm not attacking you."
And then Snape had realized, with a jolt, that he might not have thrown hexes and curses at Gideon and Fabian Prewett, but he'd stood and watched, he'd always stood and watched, as others had, descending on the Prewetts like a pack of wild dogs as they'd descended on so many others. They were like animals, WERE animals, crazed with bloodlust. And slowly, Snape had backed away.
"I'm going to assist the others," he'd told Dolohov.
"Just as well, now that these Mudblood lovers have seen you," Dolohov had replied, his attention on the Cruciatus Curse he was performing. "Can't have your cover blown."
Snape shuddered as the memory filled him again, and he walked even faster, almost passing the place. He jerked himself to a stop and waited, heart pounding.
It was a small Muggle shop, only a few streets away from the Ministry's headquarters. It was like countless other shops just like it, but Snape watched the door as though waiting for a lifeline, scarcely even blinking. She had to be there today, he didn't know what he'd do if she weren't.
And then, all of a sudden, there she was, carrying a paper bag. Snape closed his eyes for an instant and reopened them to reassure himself that he wasn't imagining her. But it was Lily Evans.
Actually Lily Potter now, or so he'd heard. She looked rather pale, and no wonder, Snape thought as he recalled that she was in the Order of the Phoenix as well.
Taking a deep breath Snape stepped forward, out of the shadow and into Lily's line of vision.
Lily spotted him, as he'd known she would, and her eyes widened. Slowly, she withdrew her wand from her pocket and trained it on Snape, her gaze never wavering.
"Evans," Snape said, surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded. "I need to talk to you. I need you to get me to Dumbledore."
Author's Note:
Thanks for all of the reviews last chapter, everyone; glad you enjoyed the lighter note and James' reaction to Lily's announcement. I hope Lily and Alice's pregnancies come off all right in this chapter; like Lily, I know almost nothing about being pregnant. So I had to do tons of research, glancing over my shoulder all the while to make sure no one was watching me and would get the wrong idea.
I was going to mention that Priori Incantatem has been included in a C2 community that you can find on Crystal Rose's bio page. She has stories from genres other than Harry Potter as well; go and look if you have the time.
Also, in answer to your question, bloodthirsty howl, "priori incantatem" is Latin and is the incantation for the wand reversal spell. If you want more information than that, try the Harry Potter Lexicon or re-read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Again, thanks for the reviews. Till next week!