***Isn't Jason cute? lol. Well, I think he is, personally. Wish I had a guy like that. Thanks for the reviews, people! Keep them coming! Enjoy!***
Chapter 8
It was amazing of what you thought about when you were asleep. Your mind was transformed with the curiousity and innocence of a child, and suddenly, one prefered the sandbox over the box of gold. Lilus remembered her sandbox, and now, still sleeping, she was watching herself play in it with a shovel and a bucket, building sandcastles higher than herself.
To be a child again...
To be that happy and carefree...
It was a dream that she suddenly had trouble remembering now. They say that when you're so old, you can no longer remember the days when you were content with a brightly colored ball or a fuzzy teddy bear. She wasn't that old, yet she was forgetting them anyway. It took a great deal of strain just to remember her sandbox and the terror that Crookshanks drove her into when he came around the corner. When you were young, everything around you was so large and curiously entertaining.
Her mother had these two old marble geese that sat on the back of their sink. Lilus learned how to do the dishes by playing with them. She loved playing in the water. Eventually the geese became replaced with squeezable sponges that oozed white suds out of them, warm, wet, bubbles. She was just three. Bubbles were so big and pretty and just begged to be popped. Soap bars were another intriguing toy to be messed with. When it was dry, it was no fun, but when it was wet, it was everywhere.
Some fun was measured by how much trouble you got into whenever Mom or Dad found out about it, like bringing a quarter of the sand in the sandbox into the house to play with Crookshanks when he wouldn't leave the house. It had seemed alright to do that, but it had not been. Crookshanks was mad at her for a long time. And then, there was the time when trying on Mommy's clothes and jewelry became the coolest thing in the world. Anything shiny was fun. Anything that sparkled was beautiful. Colors were pretty. Everything was so happy.
Television was the biggest thing that had ever happened to her. Saturday morning cartoons amused her to no end, and she kept thinking that if she broke the television screen, they'd hop out and play with her. They'd be just as alive as she was, and they would be new friends to play with. Back then when her eyes were just ordinary brown, not yet glowing red. Many a time had she tried to bust through it with something heavy, like a skillet or her father's broomstick, but her plans were foiled when a very shocked parent grabbed the object away before she could clang against the glass.
She remember her first trip to the zoo, a Muggle zoo, but still fun and exciting to a five year old. She had held her Daddy's and Mommy's hand the entire way, except when she rushed to look at the monkeys. That was the only time she had let go. To see the monkeys. Those adorable monkeys. She wanted to take one home.
Innocence...pure innocence.
Learning to swim was always fun. They had that pond in their backyard, and it was deep enough to be a swimming pool. Her dad could stand in it at one end, but he sunk under at the other end. She loved swimming. She loved water. She loved the feeling of suspended flight that she felt when she stopped moving in the water. She loved that little pond.
She adored Hedwig. That owl was so big and beautiful and soft. It was...amazing that the creature could live that long, but that bird was not going anywhere soon. She had a lot of fight left in her.
All these wonderful thoughts, and Lilus had to strain to see them again. It was hard remembering the things that should just come to her.
Meeting Justin. She met Justin when she was one. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gotten together for a sort of reunion, and she met Justin seconds afterward. She also met Baker, Nick, and Charlie. The others had not yet been born. She remembered that Nick would not share any of his toys with her at first, because he had never seen her before and wasn't kind to strangers. Plus, she was a girl. He had only been used to boys being around. Justin shared. He shared his toy broom and his racing cars. Charlie soon joined their play with Baker, who was desperately clutching a teddy bear. Nick came later, and this time, he shared, seeing his new friend and playmate.
She had gotten the hunch when she was somewhere around seven. She started foretelling things, small things and very rarely, but she could. It was just an instinct that she had developed. It was just a sense. She could sense Crookshanks coming around a corner. She could sense when her mother was about to call dinner. She could just think about things and know. A few months afterwards, it faded a little, and she no longer relied on that but relied on the raw curiousity that came.
Thunderstorms had scared her to death, more than Crookshanks. She'd rush crying into her parents room with Crookshanks pawing at her feet softly for cat-Kneazle comfort. She was welcomed with sleepy but open arms, and then, all of a sudden, nothing was wrong again. She felt so safe lying there in her parents' bed with either of them on both side of her and Crookshanks at her feet. She'd fall asleep often wondering why she had run in there in the first place.
Then came the family picnics. The Thomas's, the Weasleys, and the Potters would all come together to have huge picnics and fun and games. So much smiling. She'd have friends to play with, and she could always horse around with her Mommy and Daddy. There was so much fun! And afterwards, when every last child had fallen asleep in the dirt, the adults would scoop them out and take them home.
She loved them. She loved her home. She loved everything about her life, except for those red eyes, but they weren't so bad without the jokes and names that she was called at school.
When she met Remy...oh the fun. She had no clue how, but she just clicked with the stranger that walked through their door one afternoon. She remembered him being so tall. He had gray-brown hair and gray eyes. His clothes were tattered, but they seemed to fit him perfectly. She was really little then. She wasn't sure if she even knew how to count. All she remembered was that her big eyes met his, and it was just there. She couldn't even say his name. Remus. How hard was Remus? Re-mus. Ree-muss. Not hard at all, but the only thing that would come out of her mouth was Remy, so it stuck. He was Remy Lupin, her godfather.
She remembered him telling her that he had been a little surprised that Harry named him as her godfather, but Harry had told him that he trusted Remus a lot, and he wanted her to have sort of a grandfather-figure. And Remus would know a little more about how to keep her safe than Ron or Ginmy would. Remy helped her with a lot of things. He had been picked on because of his wolfishness. She was picked on for her eyes. It just clicked.
Jason had been a funny fellow to meet. Her first year Hogwarts, she had met him on the train. He was playing around with his wand, mumbling stupid incantations that made his wand send fireworks from the tip of it just for fun. He had always been such a goofball, but he was good to have around in a sad time. He could cheer you up just like that.
Meeting Shawn. He was part of the Quidditch team. They had tried out at the same time and were so happy to have gotten places on it. When she wrote her father about him, he said he remembered Neville, Shawn's dad. It was sort of coincidence, but it was a really good friendship.
Her family. Her past. Filled with memories that she struggled to recall. It would be hard, but she vowed to never lose them, even if she had to write every last one down in a diary or something. She'd never lose her childhood.
And that's when she woke up.
**********************************************
Hogsmeade was always a fun place. Lilus, Jason, and Justin, along with the others Weasley and the two twins. Their first stop was Zonko's like always, and they stocked up on random supplies that they'd use to terrorize Hogwarts. Most of their pranks had been postponed because of Frenchy, but Diego was cooking up something big, and he was keeping it a surprise from everyone. They could only pray that they weren't part of it. After they had done their joy shopping there, they went down to Dervish and Banges and bought ink and parchment for school. Last but not least, definitely not least, was Honeydukes. Lilus bought ten Chocolate frogs and five Every Flavor Beans (Remy's favorite. Not that he told her, she just knows.) She wasn't sure if Snape liked them, but she had heard from someone from the Order that he liked Chocolate Frogs, so that's what she bought him. He didn't seem to mind, but then again, he didn't know who they were coming from either. He's probably gripe her out for trying to bribe good marks from him, but she had been doing this for a few years now, and she didn't need his sympathy or help to pass that class with the highest mark possible.
They sat in the Three Broomsticks, chugging butterbeer and laughing. Just having a good time. Jason was asleep next to her. He had downed too much candy from Honeydukes and was now trying to get rid of it via the all time cure of sleep. Justin was sitting quietly, laughing at the feeble attempts at getting Diego's secret out. The Slytherins, Voldemort, and homesickness were the last thing on her mind right now. She was too worried about Diego's big secret, and they had been trying to get it out of him the for past twenty minutes.
"Oh, come on, guys. He already said that he wasn't going to do it on us, and he's not going to disclose anything else. Change the conversation!" she squealed.
Charlie shook his head. "I think he's lying."
Diego shook his head too. "I'm not lying. I swear I'm not going to pull it on you guys. I would never dream of..."
"There was that time you made twenty dungbombs explode in our room!" Nick yelled, laughing hysterically.
"And those flying mice in my room," Justin added.
"Not to mention the bewitched bowling balls in mine...," Baker said, narrowing his eyes at Diego.
The fifteen year old raised his hands, and Kimmy laughed. "Okay, okay, okay! You guys got me. But this one isn't on you. It's on the French boy. You know, him. Malfoy's evil cousin."
Everyone gasped and looked around to see if there were any Slytherins in the room. There were none.
"Are you serious!?" Nick squeaked.
"He'll murder you!"
"Frenchy's a little too big for you, Diego," Lilus said, "don't you think?"
Diego leaned on his elbows, his freely hanging firey hair falling over his shoulders, and his dark eyes flashing. "Of course not. It's really just a little prank, that's all."
"Oh, Diego, you're killing us! Tell us what it is!" Kimmy begged.
Diego shook his head. "Nope. Not gonna. Sorry, guys. Forget it."
There was an awwwwww in disappointment, but other than that, it was forgotten, at least in the conversation. It shifted to Frenchy himself.
"I wonder what he's got up his ass that's making him so grumpy," Jason said, finally awake from his nap.
"Probably someone's shoe from another school," Baker laughed, nearly falling out of his seat. "I'd give anything to be the kid that put it there."
Kimmy made an eww noise, and Lilus leaned back in her chair, tired from their exhausting day. Finally a weekend. She had all that time to herself. All her homework was done, except for that pesky Potions report, but she'd do that later. What a procrastinator. She slowly drifted off into dreamland, not really caring that she was in the middle of a group of nearly yelling friends. It didn't matter that much really. She had a knack at falling asleep in strange places, when she fell asleep somewhere other than her bed. She wasn't asleep for very long, because when she woke, they were still talking about Frenchy and no one had noticed that she had gone to sleep.
"Dammit!" she woke up muttering. Curse all the infernal noise. If anyone could wake her, they could.
There was silence as everyone looked at her. Lilus didn't curse frequently, but when she did under this circumstances, it was hilarious. Or so they thought. Everyone snickered and went back to talking.
"He just needs to quit picking on Lilus," Justin noted sincerely.
Diego glanced at Kimmy, and she had been the only one to notice. She knew the looked Diego had in his eyes very clearly. Fear. Revenge. She couldn't see Kimmy very well, but that didn't stop her from wondering what that glance was about. She'd interrogate later. There was a creek as the door opened, and then a loud greeting, directed to herself.
She glanced over at the third year Seeker-in-training. Taylor Pulin. He was a spiky, brown-haired boy with dark brown eyes. He ran over to them, with three of his little buddies.
"Hey, Tay!" Short and stupid, but he loved it. "How are you? Enjoying Hogsmeade?" she said, as the conversation of their table died to inspect the intruders.
"Yeah, it's really awesome. We just went by the joke shop. That was fun," he said happily. "We heard that the Marauders were the pranksters of the school, and we want to help out."
He had Jason's enthusiasm with Justin's calmness, but then again, when you hung out with this kind of variety of people, there was always a personality to mix with another one. Taylor was a really fun kid. He was sweet and suave at the same time.
"Well," sighed Lilus, pointing her finger at Diego from across the table. "He's the king, actually. I'm just here for the leading position because I have the Map. It's hereditary."
"Oh, well. If you ever want new members, just call, okay?"
"Okay, we will," she said, waving to them as they ran out of the pub. She then turned to Diego and hissed, "Don't you dare pull anything on him yet. He's my oldest Seeker, and I'll string you up by your toes if you keep him from Quidditch."
Of course, everyone knew that it was a deaf threat, but Diego promised he wouldn't do anything to Taylor. Jason grinned as the little boy left.
"What a munchkin. He's short!"
Lilus nodded. "Yeah, but he's got reflexes after my own heart."
Jason all of a sudden looked horrified. "Oh, geez, Lilus! Did you spawn already?"
Spawn wasn't taken as an insult. He used it with everyone, even before he met her. She tossed her empty butterbeer bottle in his direction, and he caught it before it could hit the wall. Everyone laughed and ended the day in the pub.
Going back to Hogwarts was as smooth as it should have been. There was no commotion from Frenchy or Malfoy, who they knew had gone on the trip as well. Her friends had tried their hardest to make her forget about her little run in with them. So far, they had done a very good job.
Bed was comforting, but she decided not to put that damn Potions report off any longer. She sat up late with an anti-melting candle hovering over her Potions book. She loved potions in general, but Snape made that class a nightmare. He had a long time to perfect his arts obviously. It was a good essay, but she had to do a little extra research on the Venemous Tentacula. Darn herbs and plants. She wrote small, much like her mother, with a simple yet elegant handwriting. In possibly an hour, she had gotten done her report (which was about twice as long as it should have been) and finally rid herself of her homework for the weekend.
Joy...
"Lil, are you still up? Good grief. Put that thing out! It's gonna keep me up all night otherwise!" Lindsey squealed as she walked in the door.
"Sure," Lilus said, plucking the candle from out of the air and putting it on her nightstand, blowing it out in doing so. She watched as Lindsey, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, clad in only her teddy bear pajamas, tried to brush the wet tangles out of her long hair. "How's Anna?"
Lindsey smiled and tried to wrench the brush free. "She's great. She's doing her homework in the Common Room. Will you come here and help me?" By the last sentence, she was pleading.
Lilus laughed, closed her book, and moved over to Lindsey's bed. She hopped on it and took the hairbrush out of her hands.
"Linds, what do the other Gryffindors think of me?" Lilus suddenly blurted out while brushing her friend's pretty hair.
Lindsey shrugged. "The Gryffindors adore you being their most prized Seeker since...uh forever."
"Beside that. What do they think of me as a person?"
Linds sat quietly for a few minutes. "Well, you scare the first years, but they don't know you. The second years that play Quidditch think you're okay. Third years are pretty cool with you. Fourth years same way. Fifth years are okay. And so are the rest."
The way she spoke was...how to say...very...solumn and hiding.
"They're all afraid, right?"
Lindsey sighed. "Yeah...most of them are, but they know that you won't hurt them. You protect the little one's, Lil. Especially after Raphael did that to Justin's little sister," there was a sharp intake of breath. "That was low. After that, anyways, they weren't as scared of you, but a lot of them still are. Your eyes...glow in the dark."
Lilus laughed. Who needed a candle? "Yeah, I know. I wish I could get rid of them."
Lindsey smiled and turned around on her bed to talk. "So, are you and Jason together?"
There was a hint of awwwww in her voice, but it was quickly trampled on. "No."
"Awww, Lilus. Why not? He likes you. That's plain."
Lilus grinned. "He likes you too."
Lindsey looked sad and pitiful. "Yeah, but you know, me and that...seventh year Ravenclaw. We're thinking about staying together."
"Yeah. I'm probably going to go to the Holloween Ball with him, considering that he never has his own date," Lilus said sadly.
Lindsey looked at the bed. "That poor kid. He's so cute and funny though. I love his accent."
Another chuckle. "I love it too. Have you ever heard him when he's asleep? It's so funny..."
Lindsey smiled, her beautiful blue eyes twinkling. She had such a nicely shaped face. She was like Kimmy, good-looking, but Kimmy didn't sleep around. Kimmy had never slept with anyone, come to think of it. A lot of the Weasleys hadn't. She knew Nick and Baker had, but just once. It's really interesting what comes out during a nice butterbeer overdose.
"No. I'll have to listen to him sometime. Did you know he sleeps in the Common Room? Like...almost every night. He's always in there by himself," the blonde whispered.
"Really?"
"I heard from Nick that he has a lot of nightmares. He sleeps out there to avoid waking anyone else. Someone said, or so I heard, that even because he was Muggle-born, he might be a developing Seer. Isn't that weird?"
"A Seer?"
"Yeah, you know. A Seer." Her voice became really hushed, then all of a sudden, it went back into porportion. "Where the heck is Anna?!"
Lilus laughed and crawled into her own bed, carefully scooping the book off into her bag, along with parchment, quill, and ink bottle. She slid under her blankets still snickering lightly, but then her world went black. Lilus felt her stomach churn later that night. She sat up in bed, staring around the room in a dead panic before she remembered where she was. She sighed and drew her hand up to rub her forehead. It was dark in their room, but she still had no problem navigating her way to the door. She wanted to know if what Lindsey said was true.
And it was.
Jason was sprawled out on the couch, but both his legs were slung over the back, and his head was propped on the lone chair that he had pulled closer. His arms were dangling off to the sides, and there was a large pond of drool next to his head. Lilus walked down the stairs slowly, inspecting him carefully as if she had never seen her friend before. He was snoring lightly, and that became present when she sat down on the couch next to him. He was wearing teddy bear pajamas too. She smiled, but she didn't laugh, not wanting to wake him. Jason had been known to be a light sleeper and a heavy sleeper, and she wasn't one to wake him during a light mood.
His hair was messy, and his light-tanned skin was very bronze in the firelight. He was cute, but still, he was Jason. For a long time, she just sat and watched him, wondering what he was dreaming about. Then he started to talk.
"No..."
It wasn't in the southern accent like it had been before.
"Nnnnn...nooooo..."
It wasn't loud. On the contrary, it was something just above a whisper. She listened contently, drawing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them.
"L..eave her alone."
Was her friend becomming a Seer? Would be be able to tell the future like Professor Trelawney or Professor Firenze?
"No...leave him alone..."
She sat silently, but suddenly, she had the urge to reach out to him and touch his face, although it would probably kill him to awake to glowing red eyes.
"Leave her alone. Don't! No!"
He choked on the last word, and then he fell dormant again.
"Jason...," she whispered, not really trying to call him. It just slipped.
He didn't awake, and she wasn't going to try to wake him. He suddenly shifted his position and rolled over to face her, still sleeping like a baby. She just sat. She just watched. She didn't move. She hardly dared to breathe. She just sat.
What nightmares did he have?
What was plaguing his mind?
Why was it plaguing Jason?
Her eagle Animagus friend?
Why Jason?
Chapter 8
It was amazing of what you thought about when you were asleep. Your mind was transformed with the curiousity and innocence of a child, and suddenly, one prefered the sandbox over the box of gold. Lilus remembered her sandbox, and now, still sleeping, she was watching herself play in it with a shovel and a bucket, building sandcastles higher than herself.
To be a child again...
To be that happy and carefree...
It was a dream that she suddenly had trouble remembering now. They say that when you're so old, you can no longer remember the days when you were content with a brightly colored ball or a fuzzy teddy bear. She wasn't that old, yet she was forgetting them anyway. It took a great deal of strain just to remember her sandbox and the terror that Crookshanks drove her into when he came around the corner. When you were young, everything around you was so large and curiously entertaining.
Her mother had these two old marble geese that sat on the back of their sink. Lilus learned how to do the dishes by playing with them. She loved playing in the water. Eventually the geese became replaced with squeezable sponges that oozed white suds out of them, warm, wet, bubbles. She was just three. Bubbles were so big and pretty and just begged to be popped. Soap bars were another intriguing toy to be messed with. When it was dry, it was no fun, but when it was wet, it was everywhere.
Some fun was measured by how much trouble you got into whenever Mom or Dad found out about it, like bringing a quarter of the sand in the sandbox into the house to play with Crookshanks when he wouldn't leave the house. It had seemed alright to do that, but it had not been. Crookshanks was mad at her for a long time. And then, there was the time when trying on Mommy's clothes and jewelry became the coolest thing in the world. Anything shiny was fun. Anything that sparkled was beautiful. Colors were pretty. Everything was so happy.
Television was the biggest thing that had ever happened to her. Saturday morning cartoons amused her to no end, and she kept thinking that if she broke the television screen, they'd hop out and play with her. They'd be just as alive as she was, and they would be new friends to play with. Back then when her eyes were just ordinary brown, not yet glowing red. Many a time had she tried to bust through it with something heavy, like a skillet or her father's broomstick, but her plans were foiled when a very shocked parent grabbed the object away before she could clang against the glass.
She remember her first trip to the zoo, a Muggle zoo, but still fun and exciting to a five year old. She had held her Daddy's and Mommy's hand the entire way, except when she rushed to look at the monkeys. That was the only time she had let go. To see the monkeys. Those adorable monkeys. She wanted to take one home.
Innocence...pure innocence.
Learning to swim was always fun. They had that pond in their backyard, and it was deep enough to be a swimming pool. Her dad could stand in it at one end, but he sunk under at the other end. She loved swimming. She loved water. She loved the feeling of suspended flight that she felt when she stopped moving in the water. She loved that little pond.
She adored Hedwig. That owl was so big and beautiful and soft. It was...amazing that the creature could live that long, but that bird was not going anywhere soon. She had a lot of fight left in her.
All these wonderful thoughts, and Lilus had to strain to see them again. It was hard remembering the things that should just come to her.
Meeting Justin. She met Justin when she was one. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gotten together for a sort of reunion, and she met Justin seconds afterward. She also met Baker, Nick, and Charlie. The others had not yet been born. She remembered that Nick would not share any of his toys with her at first, because he had never seen her before and wasn't kind to strangers. Plus, she was a girl. He had only been used to boys being around. Justin shared. He shared his toy broom and his racing cars. Charlie soon joined their play with Baker, who was desperately clutching a teddy bear. Nick came later, and this time, he shared, seeing his new friend and playmate.
She had gotten the hunch when she was somewhere around seven. She started foretelling things, small things and very rarely, but she could. It was just an instinct that she had developed. It was just a sense. She could sense Crookshanks coming around a corner. She could sense when her mother was about to call dinner. She could just think about things and know. A few months afterwards, it faded a little, and she no longer relied on that but relied on the raw curiousity that came.
Thunderstorms had scared her to death, more than Crookshanks. She'd rush crying into her parents room with Crookshanks pawing at her feet softly for cat-Kneazle comfort. She was welcomed with sleepy but open arms, and then, all of a sudden, nothing was wrong again. She felt so safe lying there in her parents' bed with either of them on both side of her and Crookshanks at her feet. She'd fall asleep often wondering why she had run in there in the first place.
Then came the family picnics. The Thomas's, the Weasleys, and the Potters would all come together to have huge picnics and fun and games. So much smiling. She'd have friends to play with, and she could always horse around with her Mommy and Daddy. There was so much fun! And afterwards, when every last child had fallen asleep in the dirt, the adults would scoop them out and take them home.
She loved them. She loved her home. She loved everything about her life, except for those red eyes, but they weren't so bad without the jokes and names that she was called at school.
When she met Remy...oh the fun. She had no clue how, but she just clicked with the stranger that walked through their door one afternoon. She remembered him being so tall. He had gray-brown hair and gray eyes. His clothes were tattered, but they seemed to fit him perfectly. She was really little then. She wasn't sure if she even knew how to count. All she remembered was that her big eyes met his, and it was just there. She couldn't even say his name. Remus. How hard was Remus? Re-mus. Ree-muss. Not hard at all, but the only thing that would come out of her mouth was Remy, so it stuck. He was Remy Lupin, her godfather.
She remembered him telling her that he had been a little surprised that Harry named him as her godfather, but Harry had told him that he trusted Remus a lot, and he wanted her to have sort of a grandfather-figure. And Remus would know a little more about how to keep her safe than Ron or Ginmy would. Remy helped her with a lot of things. He had been picked on because of his wolfishness. She was picked on for her eyes. It just clicked.
Jason had been a funny fellow to meet. Her first year Hogwarts, she had met him on the train. He was playing around with his wand, mumbling stupid incantations that made his wand send fireworks from the tip of it just for fun. He had always been such a goofball, but he was good to have around in a sad time. He could cheer you up just like that.
Meeting Shawn. He was part of the Quidditch team. They had tried out at the same time and were so happy to have gotten places on it. When she wrote her father about him, he said he remembered Neville, Shawn's dad. It was sort of coincidence, but it was a really good friendship.
Her family. Her past. Filled with memories that she struggled to recall. It would be hard, but she vowed to never lose them, even if she had to write every last one down in a diary or something. She'd never lose her childhood.
And that's when she woke up.
**********************************************
Hogsmeade was always a fun place. Lilus, Jason, and Justin, along with the others Weasley and the two twins. Their first stop was Zonko's like always, and they stocked up on random supplies that they'd use to terrorize Hogwarts. Most of their pranks had been postponed because of Frenchy, but Diego was cooking up something big, and he was keeping it a surprise from everyone. They could only pray that they weren't part of it. After they had done their joy shopping there, they went down to Dervish and Banges and bought ink and parchment for school. Last but not least, definitely not least, was Honeydukes. Lilus bought ten Chocolate frogs and five Every Flavor Beans (Remy's favorite. Not that he told her, she just knows.) She wasn't sure if Snape liked them, but she had heard from someone from the Order that he liked Chocolate Frogs, so that's what she bought him. He didn't seem to mind, but then again, he didn't know who they were coming from either. He's probably gripe her out for trying to bribe good marks from him, but she had been doing this for a few years now, and she didn't need his sympathy or help to pass that class with the highest mark possible.
They sat in the Three Broomsticks, chugging butterbeer and laughing. Just having a good time. Jason was asleep next to her. He had downed too much candy from Honeydukes and was now trying to get rid of it via the all time cure of sleep. Justin was sitting quietly, laughing at the feeble attempts at getting Diego's secret out. The Slytherins, Voldemort, and homesickness were the last thing on her mind right now. She was too worried about Diego's big secret, and they had been trying to get it out of him the for past twenty minutes.
"Oh, come on, guys. He already said that he wasn't going to do it on us, and he's not going to disclose anything else. Change the conversation!" she squealed.
Charlie shook his head. "I think he's lying."
Diego shook his head too. "I'm not lying. I swear I'm not going to pull it on you guys. I would never dream of..."
"There was that time you made twenty dungbombs explode in our room!" Nick yelled, laughing hysterically.
"And those flying mice in my room," Justin added.
"Not to mention the bewitched bowling balls in mine...," Baker said, narrowing his eyes at Diego.
The fifteen year old raised his hands, and Kimmy laughed. "Okay, okay, okay! You guys got me. But this one isn't on you. It's on the French boy. You know, him. Malfoy's evil cousin."
Everyone gasped and looked around to see if there were any Slytherins in the room. There were none.
"Are you serious!?" Nick squeaked.
"He'll murder you!"
"Frenchy's a little too big for you, Diego," Lilus said, "don't you think?"
Diego leaned on his elbows, his freely hanging firey hair falling over his shoulders, and his dark eyes flashing. "Of course not. It's really just a little prank, that's all."
"Oh, Diego, you're killing us! Tell us what it is!" Kimmy begged.
Diego shook his head. "Nope. Not gonna. Sorry, guys. Forget it."
There was an awwwwww in disappointment, but other than that, it was forgotten, at least in the conversation. It shifted to Frenchy himself.
"I wonder what he's got up his ass that's making him so grumpy," Jason said, finally awake from his nap.
"Probably someone's shoe from another school," Baker laughed, nearly falling out of his seat. "I'd give anything to be the kid that put it there."
Kimmy made an eww noise, and Lilus leaned back in her chair, tired from their exhausting day. Finally a weekend. She had all that time to herself. All her homework was done, except for that pesky Potions report, but she'd do that later. What a procrastinator. She slowly drifted off into dreamland, not really caring that she was in the middle of a group of nearly yelling friends. It didn't matter that much really. She had a knack at falling asleep in strange places, when she fell asleep somewhere other than her bed. She wasn't asleep for very long, because when she woke, they were still talking about Frenchy and no one had noticed that she had gone to sleep.
"Dammit!" she woke up muttering. Curse all the infernal noise. If anyone could wake her, they could.
There was silence as everyone looked at her. Lilus didn't curse frequently, but when she did under this circumstances, it was hilarious. Or so they thought. Everyone snickered and went back to talking.
"He just needs to quit picking on Lilus," Justin noted sincerely.
Diego glanced at Kimmy, and she had been the only one to notice. She knew the looked Diego had in his eyes very clearly. Fear. Revenge. She couldn't see Kimmy very well, but that didn't stop her from wondering what that glance was about. She'd interrogate later. There was a creek as the door opened, and then a loud greeting, directed to herself.
She glanced over at the third year Seeker-in-training. Taylor Pulin. He was a spiky, brown-haired boy with dark brown eyes. He ran over to them, with three of his little buddies.
"Hey, Tay!" Short and stupid, but he loved it. "How are you? Enjoying Hogsmeade?" she said, as the conversation of their table died to inspect the intruders.
"Yeah, it's really awesome. We just went by the joke shop. That was fun," he said happily. "We heard that the Marauders were the pranksters of the school, and we want to help out."
He had Jason's enthusiasm with Justin's calmness, but then again, when you hung out with this kind of variety of people, there was always a personality to mix with another one. Taylor was a really fun kid. He was sweet and suave at the same time.
"Well," sighed Lilus, pointing her finger at Diego from across the table. "He's the king, actually. I'm just here for the leading position because I have the Map. It's hereditary."
"Oh, well. If you ever want new members, just call, okay?"
"Okay, we will," she said, waving to them as they ran out of the pub. She then turned to Diego and hissed, "Don't you dare pull anything on him yet. He's my oldest Seeker, and I'll string you up by your toes if you keep him from Quidditch."
Of course, everyone knew that it was a deaf threat, but Diego promised he wouldn't do anything to Taylor. Jason grinned as the little boy left.
"What a munchkin. He's short!"
Lilus nodded. "Yeah, but he's got reflexes after my own heart."
Jason all of a sudden looked horrified. "Oh, geez, Lilus! Did you spawn already?"
Spawn wasn't taken as an insult. He used it with everyone, even before he met her. She tossed her empty butterbeer bottle in his direction, and he caught it before it could hit the wall. Everyone laughed and ended the day in the pub.
Going back to Hogwarts was as smooth as it should have been. There was no commotion from Frenchy or Malfoy, who they knew had gone on the trip as well. Her friends had tried their hardest to make her forget about her little run in with them. So far, they had done a very good job.
Bed was comforting, but she decided not to put that damn Potions report off any longer. She sat up late with an anti-melting candle hovering over her Potions book. She loved potions in general, but Snape made that class a nightmare. He had a long time to perfect his arts obviously. It was a good essay, but she had to do a little extra research on the Venemous Tentacula. Darn herbs and plants. She wrote small, much like her mother, with a simple yet elegant handwriting. In possibly an hour, she had gotten done her report (which was about twice as long as it should have been) and finally rid herself of her homework for the weekend.
Joy...
"Lil, are you still up? Good grief. Put that thing out! It's gonna keep me up all night otherwise!" Lindsey squealed as she walked in the door.
"Sure," Lilus said, plucking the candle from out of the air and putting it on her nightstand, blowing it out in doing so. She watched as Lindsey, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, clad in only her teddy bear pajamas, tried to brush the wet tangles out of her long hair. "How's Anna?"
Lindsey smiled and tried to wrench the brush free. "She's great. She's doing her homework in the Common Room. Will you come here and help me?" By the last sentence, she was pleading.
Lilus laughed, closed her book, and moved over to Lindsey's bed. She hopped on it and took the hairbrush out of her hands.
"Linds, what do the other Gryffindors think of me?" Lilus suddenly blurted out while brushing her friend's pretty hair.
Lindsey shrugged. "The Gryffindors adore you being their most prized Seeker since...uh forever."
"Beside that. What do they think of me as a person?"
Linds sat quietly for a few minutes. "Well, you scare the first years, but they don't know you. The second years that play Quidditch think you're okay. Third years are pretty cool with you. Fourth years same way. Fifth years are okay. And so are the rest."
The way she spoke was...how to say...very...solumn and hiding.
"They're all afraid, right?"
Lindsey sighed. "Yeah...most of them are, but they know that you won't hurt them. You protect the little one's, Lil. Especially after Raphael did that to Justin's little sister," there was a sharp intake of breath. "That was low. After that, anyways, they weren't as scared of you, but a lot of them still are. Your eyes...glow in the dark."
Lilus laughed. Who needed a candle? "Yeah, I know. I wish I could get rid of them."
Lindsey smiled and turned around on her bed to talk. "So, are you and Jason together?"
There was a hint of awwwww in her voice, but it was quickly trampled on. "No."
"Awww, Lilus. Why not? He likes you. That's plain."
Lilus grinned. "He likes you too."
Lindsey looked sad and pitiful. "Yeah, but you know, me and that...seventh year Ravenclaw. We're thinking about staying together."
"Yeah. I'm probably going to go to the Holloween Ball with him, considering that he never has his own date," Lilus said sadly.
Lindsey looked at the bed. "That poor kid. He's so cute and funny though. I love his accent."
Another chuckle. "I love it too. Have you ever heard him when he's asleep? It's so funny..."
Lindsey smiled, her beautiful blue eyes twinkling. She had such a nicely shaped face. She was like Kimmy, good-looking, but Kimmy didn't sleep around. Kimmy had never slept with anyone, come to think of it. A lot of the Weasleys hadn't. She knew Nick and Baker had, but just once. It's really interesting what comes out during a nice butterbeer overdose.
"No. I'll have to listen to him sometime. Did you know he sleeps in the Common Room? Like...almost every night. He's always in there by himself," the blonde whispered.
"Really?"
"I heard from Nick that he has a lot of nightmares. He sleeps out there to avoid waking anyone else. Someone said, or so I heard, that even because he was Muggle-born, he might be a developing Seer. Isn't that weird?"
"A Seer?"
"Yeah, you know. A Seer." Her voice became really hushed, then all of a sudden, it went back into porportion. "Where the heck is Anna?!"
Lilus laughed and crawled into her own bed, carefully scooping the book off into her bag, along with parchment, quill, and ink bottle. She slid under her blankets still snickering lightly, but then her world went black. Lilus felt her stomach churn later that night. She sat up in bed, staring around the room in a dead panic before she remembered where she was. She sighed and drew her hand up to rub her forehead. It was dark in their room, but she still had no problem navigating her way to the door. She wanted to know if what Lindsey said was true.
And it was.
Jason was sprawled out on the couch, but both his legs were slung over the back, and his head was propped on the lone chair that he had pulled closer. His arms were dangling off to the sides, and there was a large pond of drool next to his head. Lilus walked down the stairs slowly, inspecting him carefully as if she had never seen her friend before. He was snoring lightly, and that became present when she sat down on the couch next to him. He was wearing teddy bear pajamas too. She smiled, but she didn't laugh, not wanting to wake him. Jason had been known to be a light sleeper and a heavy sleeper, and she wasn't one to wake him during a light mood.
His hair was messy, and his light-tanned skin was very bronze in the firelight. He was cute, but still, he was Jason. For a long time, she just sat and watched him, wondering what he was dreaming about. Then he started to talk.
"No..."
It wasn't in the southern accent like it had been before.
"Nnnnn...nooooo..."
It wasn't loud. On the contrary, it was something just above a whisper. She listened contently, drawing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on them.
"L..eave her alone."
Was her friend becomming a Seer? Would be be able to tell the future like Professor Trelawney or Professor Firenze?
"No...leave him alone..."
She sat silently, but suddenly, she had the urge to reach out to him and touch his face, although it would probably kill him to awake to glowing red eyes.
"Leave her alone. Don't! No!"
He choked on the last word, and then he fell dormant again.
"Jason...," she whispered, not really trying to call him. It just slipped.
He didn't awake, and she wasn't going to try to wake him. He suddenly shifted his position and rolled over to face her, still sleeping like a baby. She just sat. She just watched. She didn't move. She hardly dared to breathe. She just sat.
What nightmares did he have?
What was plaguing his mind?
Why was it plaguing Jason?
Her eagle Animagus friend?
Why Jason?