Chapter 4

Confusion

Lily walked towards the common room, thinking. Why wouldn't it work? What is happening? She continued to walk when she heard something smashing to the ground. She turned around and noticed it was coming from around the corner. She pulled out her wand, her mind drifting to last night and slowly crept toward the person breaking things. She turned the corner and straitened up immediately.

"James Potter! What on earth are you doing?"

He stopped.

"You can't just go around breaking things! You're Head Boy for goodness sake! You haven't acted like this for months! Are you setting up for a prank? If you are, where's Sirius? I'm sure he'd like to help! I thought you changed! You need to—" she stopped. This boy was not James Potter. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her against the wall.

"Don't you dare mention Sirius Black ever again! You have no idea how great a person he was! You have no right to…to… no! Not again! You're not supposed to be here! You're supposed to be…Get away from me! All of you leave me alone!" he said as he ran off.

Lily watched him for a minute in a daze, and then she snapped to her senses. "Wait!" she called. She hoped she hadn't offended him. She wanted to make sure he was all right. She ran down the hall after him. He was running toward the Heads Dorm. Lily barely heard him utter the password, "Magic" as he slipped through the portrait. When Lily got to the portrait, she repeated him.

"You finally got it right!" the portrait said as he opened.

Lily walked into the common room and looked for the boy. She suddenly gasped. On the golden plates above the two bedrooms, there no longer were the names Lily and James. They were Ron and Hermione. She was snapped out of her surprise when she heard voices coming from behind the door underneath the name Ron.

"Are you sure, Harry?" a girl said.

So that was Harry! Lily thought.

"Harry, that's impossible," another girl said. "I really don't think you saw your mother. I mean, she's dead."

"I know, Hermione!" Harry said. "But I saw her! I touched her! She was real! She called me James! And Sirius…he was eating! The food was disappearing! Don't tell me you couldn't see him! Everyone was watching him!"

"We didn't see him," a boy said.

"I'm telling you, he was there! If it wasn't the real Sirius, then who was it?"

"Maybe it was a trick.. Maybe it's a Death Eater or something," the boy suggested.

"Brilliant, Ron!" Hermione said sarcastically. "Unless one of the Death Eaters can transform himself into a totally different person without a polyjuce potion, then I don't see how someone could turn into Sirius. And they couldn't use the potion to transform because they can't get one of his hairs."

"Then there's got to be another explanation for it," the other girl said.

"Look, maybe you're right. Maybe I just imagined it," Harry said. "Maybe I need some rest. I think I'm going to go to bed,"

"Here, Harry, why don't you sleep in here tonight? Maybe it would be better if you had some privacy."

"Alright. Goodnight."

"Goodnight." The three responded.

Lily heard shuffling from behind the door. She knew she was in trouble now. They would see her behind the door, listening. She turned around darted toward the couch in front of the fireplace and hid out of sight.

When the three friends had left Harry and had exited through the portrait, Lily got up and followed them. She wanted to know more about Harry Potter who was so perplexed and shocked at seeing Sirius and herself.

She got close enough so she could hear them, but not too close as to draw suspicion to her.

"He was perfectly fine last week, yesterday even," the girl with brown hair said.

"I wonder if he really is seeing Lily and Sirius. Maybe he's just stressed out over not being able to find out where the last horcrux is. Remember, he wanted to find out all he could before Christmas, then start destroying them. Maybe that's why he's seeing them. He just wants a reminder of people he's lost that he loves. I think it's just his imagination."

"But Ginny, wouldn't it have happened before now?" Ron asked.

"Well, Christmas is only a week away and we still have a lot of work to do."

"How is finding out where the gold locket is a lot do, Hermione?"

"Really, Ron? We have to figure out who R.A.B. is, then figure out where he or she took it, and whether or not it hasn't been destroyed already," said Hermione.

"But what if he really did see Sirius? What if he's back? Harry would be so happy," Ginny said, hopefully.

"Yes, but if it were Sirius, then he would have run up to Harry and told him," Ron said.

"Oh! I want the old Harry back!" Hermione wailed. "I want the Harry who didn't know about the prophecy or Voldemort! It's his entire fault! If Voldemort hadn't come back in our fourth year, then Harry might be different!"

"But Dumbledore would have told him the prophecy eventually anyway. I mean, he is the only one who can defeat Voldemort," Ginny said.

"Well, yes, I suppose. Well, let's get back to what happened today. He said he saw Lily as well, didn't he?"

"Yeah, that's why he told us, remember?" Ron said. "He said he thought he had just been imagining Sirius, but when he saw her, he decided maybe it was something more."

"I still think he believes he saw them. I'll bet he even hopes his dad is here too. He's always wanted to meet him," Ginny said.

Hermione nodded. They had now approached the portrait of the Fat Lady and Hermione said the password. "Bravery."

Lily watched Harry's three friends disappear into their dormitories and then spotted James and Sirius sitting by the fire.

"Lily, what were you doing?" James asked. "You were gone for ages."

"I found Harry Potter."

"You found him?" Sirius asked.

"Yes, and he acted really strange when he saw me. It might be because I started yelling at him. It was really weird. He was making a whole lot of noise. That's what drew my attention to him. I thought he was you, James. He looks exactly like you. Anyway, he turned and looked at me and started yelling at me, and then he suddenly backed off. It was like he couldn't believe he was seeing me. It was sort of like what he said in the Great Hall. He was stuttering and shaking his head as he let go of my wrists—"

"Wait! Did he hurt you?"

Lily suddenly realized what she had said. She hadn't meant to say that. She knew how James would react. "No, James, look—"

"I knew this guy sounded like trouble!"

"James, he's just going through a hard time. I overheard part of what he has to deal with. He has Voldemort trying to kill him because of some prophecy, he has had people he loves die, he's had—"

"I've had people I love die! And I don't go around attacking other people!"

"James, he didn't attack me! I think there's something we don't know about him or any of them. This is just too weird. I think Voldemort did something to us last night."

"What? What do you think he did? You know what? Maybe this kid, this Harry Potter is something of Voldemort's! Maybe he was sent here to spy on us or, or confuse us! Yeah, that kid was sent here to hurt us! Like you said, he grabbed your wrists!"

"James, that makes no sense!"

"Prongs, she's right. It doesn't make—"

"How dare you take her side! That boy is evil!"

"You know nothing about him!"

"Oh yeah? Well, neither do you! Don't you think it's suspicious that we've never heard of a kid named Harry Potter before? He acts like he's been here for a while. Maybe he's been spying on us—"

"James, shut up!" Lily yelled. "You know nothing about this kid! You haven't even seen him! You can't judge someone without even meeting them!"

"You're doing the same thing! You're saying he's perfectly fine! What if he isn't?"

"Look at his face! Look at his body! He is so tiny and skinny! He has shadows under his eyes!"

"You're judging a book by its cover! That could just be because he's serving Voldemort!"

"Do you see Lucius Malfoy running around with bags under his eyes? No! You don't! He always seems well rested and full of energy!"

"Okay, you two! I think that's enough!" Sirius interjected. "Why don't we go talk to him tomorrow? That way we'll really find out if he's evil or not."

James looked at the ground and shrugged. Lily nodded her head as she pulled the loose strands from her ponytail behind her ears.

"Now, let's go to bed, shall we?"

"I guess we'll just sleep in the dorms since we're apparently not Head Boy and Girl anymore,"

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"Our names aren't on the golden plates anymore. Now, it's Ron and, I think it's Hermione. The password's been changed as well. It's magic."

"That makes no sense. And what a lame password!"

"It doesn't matter. We'll straiten it out later."

James shrugged again and followed Sirius to their dorms.