***Like so far? Thanks for sticking with me :). R&R!***
Chapter 13
By lunchtime, everyone had forgotten about Diego's promise, but as soon as they entered the Great Hall for lunch, they nearly died laughing. Lilus collapsed against Jason, who was now rolling on the floor with his face as read as a cherry. Nick and Charlie were screeching their amusement, and even Shawn could not help but laugh his polite, quiet head off at the sight. There were more people laughing with them, possible about twenty or thirty more.
Hanging all along the ceiling, billowing with the slight draft, were robes, and by what Diego had told them, they were Frenchy's clothes. Everything that teenaged boy had worn was up there: underwear, shirts, black robes, red robes, blue robes, socks of just about every color. Everything. By time the teachers had arrived for lunch, the entire cafeteria was in an uproar of laugher. Some people had dropped where they were standing and burst out laughing when Frenchy walked into the room and stared with humongous eyes at his entire wardrobe hanging on the ceiling of the Great Hall. Someone must have started to pass out that they were his because soon, everyone was sniggering about him.
Lilus only saw Frenchy once, and it was when he had that hilarious look of complete shock on his face. He later fled the scene, and the teachers later charmed his clothes back into their proper place, in his room, in his trunk. She saw Raphael for once in a long time. He also found the prank just as amusing as the Gryffindors had, although he was very cautious about showing it, but she could see the glee and satisfaction in his eyes.
By time everyone had settled down and talk about the matter resulted in sharp giggles but nothing more, the meal was able to officially begin. All the Marauders were congratulating Diego for his accomplishment of public humiliation for Frenchy.
"Well done, Diego! That was beautiful!" Baker squealed, pounding his fists on the table.
Nick and Charlie were still trying to calm down and continued to snigger loudly through their teeth. Jason was having the same problem. Justin walked behind her and sat down next to her. She put her head in her arms and tried to ignore him, but she felt him wrapping his arms around her protectively. Did he feel the trembling that she was feeling.
"I'm sorry, Lilus. I just...I don't want you to forget them."
She reached around him and hugged him back. "I'll never forget them. You don't have to worry about that, Justin."
He squeezed her one last time before releasing her, looking at the table shamefully. "I don't know what came over me, Lilus. I really don't. I just felt so mad."
"I know, Justin. But right now, I'm hungry and you're hungry, and we have all this delicious food in front of us. I insist we get started," she said softly.
Justin smiled and scratched the back of his neck, making his his strawberry blonde hair messier in on the nape of his neck. The Marauders piled their plates with food and chowed down with Jason on his constant search for cobbler.
*********************
Lilus was tired. That morning, she had lost a lot of blood crying over Justin, and she was ready to sleep. Sleep sounded so much like paradise. Of course, any professor she asked save Snape would probably let her go to the hospital wing. Hagrid was a cool guy, and he was so funny. She loved his class. It was like the zoo. It was a few minutes until class was to be dismissed, and his discussion on the newborn orphan gryphon on his shoulder still caught her interest. The baby was so cute. It had large eyes and its wings were just two nubs sticking out of its back. It was a gray color, and it purred against Hagrid's beard, rubbing its beak on him.
Jason poked her in the side, and she turned to look at him. He had his "I'm cute so kiss me" expression on, and she smiled, putting her hand in the middle of his face. Baker chuckled just as Hagrid dismissed them for the day. Last class, they were so free, but not even fifteen minutes afterward, she felt something.
"Stop, stop," she said, holding her arm out and stopping Baker and Nick, the two boys that were closest to her. Immediately all the others stopped.
"Lilus, what's wrong?" Jason said.
The hunch was back. Something wasn't right. What could be wrong?
"Oh my God. Diego."
She shoved Jason out of her way and dropped her back, making sure that she had her wand this time. Jason scooped her back off the floor, and everyone followed her, but they became lost in a river of students. Lilus ran down the hallway, dodging as many people as she could. She ran into this one girl, who shrieked and dropped her bag, spilling her books on the floor.
"Sorry!" Lilus yelled after her.
"You devil!"
She sprinted her way across the castle with her destination being the Slytherin Tower. Hardly any teachers went up there, and that was why she was heading there first. Her hunch had started again. Frenchy was probably wanting revenge for what happened that morning, and Diego was in for it. Another problem was that Kimmy was always with Diego, so she would be with him. She began to feel faint as she began to slowly drip blood from her body through her skin and sweat, but she kept running as fast as she could. She had to get to Diego. She had to save Diego. No matter what. She had to get to that tower.
No, don't hurt him. Beat me up, but leave Diego and Kimmy alone. Please, beat me up, but not them. Leave them alone.
She knew Diego could hex really well, but he wasn't very muscular aside from his Quidditch muscles. If someone got his wand away from him, he would fight hard, but with the twenty or so people that followed Frenchy around, neither him nor Kimmy stood much of a chance. She nearly flew up the stairs, her heart beating faster than it should be. She was breathing slowly, having practiced swimming breathing techniques.
"Leave them alone!" she screamed just as she reached the top of the staircase.
Kimmy was being held by one of the Quidditch players, a Chaser. She was unharmed, but she was bawling her eyes out. Diego was sprawled on the ground stupefied, while the Slytherins each took their turns kicking him. His side was already bruised very badly. Before they turned around to see who had found them out, she had jumped on the back of the one currently kicking him, knocking him to the floor. She drew out her wand.
"Stupify! Stupify! Stupify!"
Three blobs of light escaped from the tip of her wand, and she dodged the oncoming spells. She flung punches at every face she saw, sending a lot of them to the floor. She went after the one holding Kimmy as soon as she could. He released Kimmy at once, and she rushed to Diego's limp body. They must have taken her wand from her. Neither Diego nor Kimmy had their wands. The boy that held Kimmy stood menacingly over her. Lilus saw Frenchy smirking at her just behind the Quidditch player.
Wayne Hudson. That was his name, and he was a very nasty Quidditch player. He shoved her away from him, but she was on her feet in seconds.
There was no way she would lose to a Slytherin. She lunged for his legs and tackled him. He tripped and fell over, and she proceeded to punch the hell out of his face before he grabbed her and threw her against the wall.
"Get outta here!"
Diego came to as Kimmy ushered him away from the scene after following Lilus' order. She had retrieved their wands from the Slytherin that was groaning on the floor, and they were out of there. Kimmy hexed as many of them as she could before they started to turn on her. She grabbed Diego and ran.
The Slytherins had come to and were ganging up on her. Lilus felt someone grab her arm. She whirled around and punched him while, hexing another one. She hexed the boy that she was fighting, and it knocked him backwards. She suddenly felt multiple hands grab ahold of her. The attacks on her stopped, and she could no longer give them out. Frenchy came out behind his barrier of bodies.
"Potter, dear, you have fought gallantly, and your little friend has been punished enough. You, however, I still owe something. Good night, Potter."
"You stupid bast-"
She felt her body being whipped against the wall, and she heard something crunch. She felt blood began to trickle down her head as everything went fuzzy in the room. Then she heard something about the dungeon. She fell limp as everything went black around her.
*************************
Red eyes. She didn't mind her eyes so much now. It seemed so selfish to worry about something like that. She had much bigger things to worry about. Things that could possibly be less perminant. Things that she would have to work for. Those memories that she would have to strive hard to remember. A family that she needed to protect. A family that she needed to avenge. Friends that needed protection. Death Eaters that needed to be killed.
They needed to be remembered.
Not eyes or boyfriends Not those things that teenaged girls were supposed to treasure so much. Stupid things. Some people would never know loss. Some people would never know disipline or wisdom. Some people would never be able to experience heart break. Those were people that would never live life to its fullest. Those were people who didn't realize anything important in life.
A searing pain brought Lilus temporarily back into the real world. She opened her eyes and saw a blurry figure above her. At first, its hair was almost white, but then it darkened. It drew a cloth down on her forehead and more pain.
"Mmmmm..." the voice said.
It wasn't Jason, Justin, or any of the boys.
More pain.
She fell back into darkness.
Who was holding her? She could feel something equivilant to being held, but who was doing it? That voice was not one that she recognized. The bandage around her head was beginning to sting. Or was it the gash that it covered. Lilus felt warmth in the arms of this stranger, although she wasn't sure that they were certain of who she was. If they knew, they would run or hurt her some more. She felt a horrible pain in her side and figured that she suffered from the same fate as Diego. She felt a draft all over her stomach, and she figured that the stranger had found out about that too. It, all of a sudden, began to hurt to breathe. She could feel her breath come out in a harsh, raspy cough. She could feel the soft vibrations of his voice as he spoke to her, but the words she did not hear. Everything he said was just a deep "mmm," and he sounded like he was humming to her.
Had she come so close to bleeding to death that she suddenly became aware of things that she did not. She heard a heartbeat, but she was not directly on his chest, more or less a shoulder, or so she thought. She really wasn't sure. Her body had gone numb. No doubt she had lost a lot of blood. She could feel his warmth. That warmth. She knew she was cold. She couldn't feel it, but she knew it. She tried to open her eyes again, but she failed miserably.
Sometime after that, she fell asleep, her mind content with the warmth around her. It was after she woke up that the words began to make sense. The boy had been talking most of the time, whispering in soft words for her to be okay and not be dead. She probably looked dead, considering how cold and pale she was. She couldn't open her eyes yet, and she still breathed very hoarsely.
"Thank God. Be okay, be okay. Wake up, Lilus. I'm so sorry. Wake up."
The words were being analyzed. Who was that boy? Where had she heard that before?
The train...
Snid...
The Ravenclaw...
She opened her eyes a little bit, but they collapsed closed again. "Nnnnn..."
It was a pathetic attempt at speech, but she was still living. Now he knew she knew he was there. She had acknowledged him. He was there.
"Lilus...it's me. Can you hear me?"
"Sss..."
"It's Snid."
Silence.
"I was afraid to move you or else I would have taken you to Madame Pomfrey immediately. Forgive me."
Damn, her head hurt.
She opened her eyes, and they stayed open that time, but the image was still very blurry. She tried to move her arm, but it slid across her stomach and stung her side, gaining a sharp hiss from her.
"I think some of your ribs are broken. Do you want me to leave you and go find Professor Snape?"
She did her best to shake her head no. She felt him scoop her against her. It was very painful, but he managed to make it warmer. She closed her eyes again, blinking several times in an attempt to make the image clearer.
It came slightly into focus, but not much. It was still fuzzy.
"Please, you're awake now. Let me go get Professor Snape. He'll know what to do. I'll be right back. I promise."
He gently put her on the floor and took off the outer layer of his robes to blanket her with it. She lay curled up on the floor, her bruised and broken side free from any tension. It was so cold in the dungeon, even with her blood-soaked clothes and his cloak. Lilus wasn't sure how long she was there, but she drifted off to sleep eventually.
Snid came back with Professor Snape on his heels. Snape was an old man, but he still had muscle on his old body. He was surprisingly lean and in shape for someone of his age. Lilus felt her body being levitated into the air.
"I demand to know what happened," Snape spat at Snid.
"I swear, professor, I don't know. I just heard someone in the hallway talk about her being in the dungeon. I think it was a Slytherin who did it, sir."
She was levitated into the hospital wing, where more healing spells and a night stay were needed, not to mention a bloodcell growth spell. She was put in the bed to let the spells set in. Her headache was still throbbing, but she could see decently now. She was lying in bed with the bandage still around her head and side.
"Make that tomorrow night, okay, Lilus?" she heard Snid whisper before Madame Pomfrey sent him back to his house.
Of course it was him. She should have guessed that from the very beginning. The young man that was lost in the crowd. The boy with a rediculous but stunningly mysterious nickname. He wanted to meet her again. She probably owed him her life. There was no clue how long she would have survived in such a vast place as the dungeons. Only Snape and Filch knew the entire dungeon like the back of their hands.
*********************
Later, after she was out of the hospital wing, she just couldn't help but feel that she could be in there again very soon. The game was that day, and it happened to be Saturday, and Saturday meant no school, just free time. She left the hospital wing energized with a small headache, but it was just a little one.
As she walked through the door and into the Great Hall, Jason and all the gang jumped up and rushed over to her. They crowded her in a human forcefield.
"Lilus, Diego told us what happened. You never came back to the dorm last night," Jason said.
"Someone said that you were in the hospital wing all night," Justin said.
Soon, the air was full of disturbing questions that Lilus really wasn't in the mood to answer. For one, she didn't know much about what had happened. Diego and Kimmy sat across from her, their faces showing sympathy and admiration.
"I was slammed into the wall, and when I woke up, Snid was there."
"Snid? Who's Snid?" everyone said almost at the same time.
Snid. He had saved her. She didn't know what would happen if he had not come down there and found her.
"A friend...he...saved me," she said quietly.
She smiled awkwardly and ate, while Kimmy and Diego amused them with the finer details of the fight.
Their game was shortly before lunch. The professors had wanted to start it just after lunch because that was when it was warmest. They didn't want their players to freeze to death. She was scared. There was no telling just exactly what Frenchy and his goons did last night, and she felt a shame. She glared at him head on when she saw him at the lunch table. He glared back, but now, the hatred was smaller than before. He seemed to be laughing at her. He had won last night, but not after she took out probably six or eight of his friends. She would never be in that position again. Never. She'd have to get Jason to start practicing her spells with her again. She seemed to like punching and kicking more than hexing or jinxing. He loved to do both.
Jason was becoming more lovable by the day. She really didn't think he would be such a bad boyfriend. He was sweet. He was funny, sometimes anyway. He cared. He loved. It was a surprise that he was single. He had such a nice personality, and he wasn't bad looking. She had begged her boys not to go after the Slytherins for two reasons. One, if they got hurt, they wouldn't be in the game, and two, she didn't want to have to confront him before the game.
They decided to go hang out in the courtyard and practice transfiguring sticks and leaves into whatever came to mind. She had transfigured a stick into a small dagger, and the dagger into a necklace, and the necklace into the stick again. She leaned against the tree and closed her eyes, trying to remember every spell that she knew. She nodded off again, something that she had been doing very recently due to short blood shortage. She always felt tired, and she had to be alert during the game. She had never seen Frenchy play before.
She saw herself flying over a forest, arms outstretched but no wings. She was flying with just her body, her body. The air was warm. So warm. It reminded her of summertime at home, the heat from Snid's body. The warmth felt so good.
"Lilus, wake up. We have to go get ready for the game," Baker said, shaking her softly.
She smiled lazily and felt Charlie and Baker pull her to her feet. She stretched and looked around. There were other students in the courtyard, students that were studying or doing homework. Most had smiles on their faces under the sun. The ground was lightly covered with frost, but it seemed to attract more students than the green grass did.
Lilus followed Charlie and Baker down to the Quidditch field and into their dressing house. She went into the room specifically for girls and began to put on her armor and robes.
"Lilus, are you ready?"
"Yeah, hold on," she said, grabbing her broom and leaving the dressing room.
All the boys were dressed in their brightly colored uniforms. She smiled, taking in how bonded they all looked. They were ready for the battle.
"Let's kick some Slytherin ass," Diego roared, throwing his arm in the air.
There was a loud cheer that made the walls shake. Lilus cheered with them, ready for the game to begin.
**************************
"Minerva, Severus, any progress? Madame Pince?" Albus said, reading through one of the many tomes that he could get his hands on.
The teachers glanced upwards from their books and shook their heads with despair in their eyes before continuing to scan the pages of the books. There were so many, and they had been at it for a long time. Minerva closed her book and put it in an abandoned pile across from her and put her old face in her hands.
"Albus, forgive me! I just cannot remember where that article was," she cried.
"Minerva, it is quite alright. We just need to keep searching. I am sure that it will turn up," he replied softly.
"Minerva," said Madame Pince, "is it possible that you read the article at another place?"
Minerva nodded. "I could have been, but I do not recall when I read the article or else I would be able to know where. If it were for my ignorance, she could be saved!"
They saw someone enter the restricted section, and all their heads turned toward him. Remus Lupin stopped on the spot and dropped the three books he was holding.
"Oh, uh...so sorry. Was I interupting anything?" he said, his hands trembling slightly.
"Remus," Albus said, standing from his soft chair, "you are aware of your goddaughter's blood tears, are you not?"
Remus nodded. "Yes, Albus."
"Minerva recalls something that could mean the destruction of young Ms. Potter."
He nodded. "I know. I am trying to find a way to rid her of it. I read it in a book once. It was only mentioned, hinted at..."
Severus growled, "What is it?!"
"It is called Crimson Tears. I have tried to find a book on it, but it seems that this is something that has only happened one other time in history, and there was no record kept of it."
"What book had that in it?" Severus hissed.
"I cannot remember the book, but it had something to do with phantoms or ghosts or such," Remus said sadly. "It did not elaborate any on it. It just mentioned it."
"What could be doing that to her?" Minerva said shakily.
Severus folded his hands. "The same thing that allowed a sixteen-year-old witch smash her fist into a stone wall and break it."
"That puzzles me greatly," Albus said. "No strength of a child could possess that much force..."
Remus nodded. "We need to find something on Crimson Tears."
They called Madame Pince over to their table and began to write letters to their fellow professors at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for any information on Crimson Tears. Any information would be vital.
"Should we tell Ms. Potter?" Minerva said.
"No, don't tell her," Remus said hastily. "She has too much to worry about now."
Albus nodded. "If Ms. Potter is not to know, we must make our research as quick as possible."
All the professors agreed.
Chapter 13
By lunchtime, everyone had forgotten about Diego's promise, but as soon as they entered the Great Hall for lunch, they nearly died laughing. Lilus collapsed against Jason, who was now rolling on the floor with his face as read as a cherry. Nick and Charlie were screeching their amusement, and even Shawn could not help but laugh his polite, quiet head off at the sight. There were more people laughing with them, possible about twenty or thirty more.
Hanging all along the ceiling, billowing with the slight draft, were robes, and by what Diego had told them, they were Frenchy's clothes. Everything that teenaged boy had worn was up there: underwear, shirts, black robes, red robes, blue robes, socks of just about every color. Everything. By time the teachers had arrived for lunch, the entire cafeteria was in an uproar of laugher. Some people had dropped where they were standing and burst out laughing when Frenchy walked into the room and stared with humongous eyes at his entire wardrobe hanging on the ceiling of the Great Hall. Someone must have started to pass out that they were his because soon, everyone was sniggering about him.
Lilus only saw Frenchy once, and it was when he had that hilarious look of complete shock on his face. He later fled the scene, and the teachers later charmed his clothes back into their proper place, in his room, in his trunk. She saw Raphael for once in a long time. He also found the prank just as amusing as the Gryffindors had, although he was very cautious about showing it, but she could see the glee and satisfaction in his eyes.
By time everyone had settled down and talk about the matter resulted in sharp giggles but nothing more, the meal was able to officially begin. All the Marauders were congratulating Diego for his accomplishment of public humiliation for Frenchy.
"Well done, Diego! That was beautiful!" Baker squealed, pounding his fists on the table.
Nick and Charlie were still trying to calm down and continued to snigger loudly through their teeth. Jason was having the same problem. Justin walked behind her and sat down next to her. She put her head in her arms and tried to ignore him, but she felt him wrapping his arms around her protectively. Did he feel the trembling that she was feeling.
"I'm sorry, Lilus. I just...I don't want you to forget them."
She reached around him and hugged him back. "I'll never forget them. You don't have to worry about that, Justin."
He squeezed her one last time before releasing her, looking at the table shamefully. "I don't know what came over me, Lilus. I really don't. I just felt so mad."
"I know, Justin. But right now, I'm hungry and you're hungry, and we have all this delicious food in front of us. I insist we get started," she said softly.
Justin smiled and scratched the back of his neck, making his his strawberry blonde hair messier in on the nape of his neck. The Marauders piled their plates with food and chowed down with Jason on his constant search for cobbler.
*********************
Lilus was tired. That morning, she had lost a lot of blood crying over Justin, and she was ready to sleep. Sleep sounded so much like paradise. Of course, any professor she asked save Snape would probably let her go to the hospital wing. Hagrid was a cool guy, and he was so funny. She loved his class. It was like the zoo. It was a few minutes until class was to be dismissed, and his discussion on the newborn orphan gryphon on his shoulder still caught her interest. The baby was so cute. It had large eyes and its wings were just two nubs sticking out of its back. It was a gray color, and it purred against Hagrid's beard, rubbing its beak on him.
Jason poked her in the side, and she turned to look at him. He had his "I'm cute so kiss me" expression on, and she smiled, putting her hand in the middle of his face. Baker chuckled just as Hagrid dismissed them for the day. Last class, they were so free, but not even fifteen minutes afterward, she felt something.
"Stop, stop," she said, holding her arm out and stopping Baker and Nick, the two boys that were closest to her. Immediately all the others stopped.
"Lilus, what's wrong?" Jason said.
The hunch was back. Something wasn't right. What could be wrong?
"Oh my God. Diego."
She shoved Jason out of her way and dropped her back, making sure that she had her wand this time. Jason scooped her back off the floor, and everyone followed her, but they became lost in a river of students. Lilus ran down the hallway, dodging as many people as she could. She ran into this one girl, who shrieked and dropped her bag, spilling her books on the floor.
"Sorry!" Lilus yelled after her.
"You devil!"
She sprinted her way across the castle with her destination being the Slytherin Tower. Hardly any teachers went up there, and that was why she was heading there first. Her hunch had started again. Frenchy was probably wanting revenge for what happened that morning, and Diego was in for it. Another problem was that Kimmy was always with Diego, so she would be with him. She began to feel faint as she began to slowly drip blood from her body through her skin and sweat, but she kept running as fast as she could. She had to get to Diego. She had to save Diego. No matter what. She had to get to that tower.
No, don't hurt him. Beat me up, but leave Diego and Kimmy alone. Please, beat me up, but not them. Leave them alone.
She knew Diego could hex really well, but he wasn't very muscular aside from his Quidditch muscles. If someone got his wand away from him, he would fight hard, but with the twenty or so people that followed Frenchy around, neither him nor Kimmy stood much of a chance. She nearly flew up the stairs, her heart beating faster than it should be. She was breathing slowly, having practiced swimming breathing techniques.
"Leave them alone!" she screamed just as she reached the top of the staircase.
Kimmy was being held by one of the Quidditch players, a Chaser. She was unharmed, but she was bawling her eyes out. Diego was sprawled on the ground stupefied, while the Slytherins each took their turns kicking him. His side was already bruised very badly. Before they turned around to see who had found them out, she had jumped on the back of the one currently kicking him, knocking him to the floor. She drew out her wand.
"Stupify! Stupify! Stupify!"
Three blobs of light escaped from the tip of her wand, and she dodged the oncoming spells. She flung punches at every face she saw, sending a lot of them to the floor. She went after the one holding Kimmy as soon as she could. He released Kimmy at once, and she rushed to Diego's limp body. They must have taken her wand from her. Neither Diego nor Kimmy had their wands. The boy that held Kimmy stood menacingly over her. Lilus saw Frenchy smirking at her just behind the Quidditch player.
Wayne Hudson. That was his name, and he was a very nasty Quidditch player. He shoved her away from him, but she was on her feet in seconds.
There was no way she would lose to a Slytherin. She lunged for his legs and tackled him. He tripped and fell over, and she proceeded to punch the hell out of his face before he grabbed her and threw her against the wall.
"Get outta here!"
Diego came to as Kimmy ushered him away from the scene after following Lilus' order. She had retrieved their wands from the Slytherin that was groaning on the floor, and they were out of there. Kimmy hexed as many of them as she could before they started to turn on her. She grabbed Diego and ran.
The Slytherins had come to and were ganging up on her. Lilus felt someone grab her arm. She whirled around and punched him while, hexing another one. She hexed the boy that she was fighting, and it knocked him backwards. She suddenly felt multiple hands grab ahold of her. The attacks on her stopped, and she could no longer give them out. Frenchy came out behind his barrier of bodies.
"Potter, dear, you have fought gallantly, and your little friend has been punished enough. You, however, I still owe something. Good night, Potter."
"You stupid bast-"
She felt her body being whipped against the wall, and she heard something crunch. She felt blood began to trickle down her head as everything went fuzzy in the room. Then she heard something about the dungeon. She fell limp as everything went black around her.
*************************
Red eyes. She didn't mind her eyes so much now. It seemed so selfish to worry about something like that. She had much bigger things to worry about. Things that could possibly be less perminant. Things that she would have to work for. Those memories that she would have to strive hard to remember. A family that she needed to protect. A family that she needed to avenge. Friends that needed protection. Death Eaters that needed to be killed.
They needed to be remembered.
Not eyes or boyfriends Not those things that teenaged girls were supposed to treasure so much. Stupid things. Some people would never know loss. Some people would never know disipline or wisdom. Some people would never be able to experience heart break. Those were people that would never live life to its fullest. Those were people who didn't realize anything important in life.
A searing pain brought Lilus temporarily back into the real world. She opened her eyes and saw a blurry figure above her. At first, its hair was almost white, but then it darkened. It drew a cloth down on her forehead and more pain.
"Mmmmm..." the voice said.
It wasn't Jason, Justin, or any of the boys.
More pain.
She fell back into darkness.
Who was holding her? She could feel something equivilant to being held, but who was doing it? That voice was not one that she recognized. The bandage around her head was beginning to sting. Or was it the gash that it covered. Lilus felt warmth in the arms of this stranger, although she wasn't sure that they were certain of who she was. If they knew, they would run or hurt her some more. She felt a horrible pain in her side and figured that she suffered from the same fate as Diego. She felt a draft all over her stomach, and she figured that the stranger had found out about that too. It, all of a sudden, began to hurt to breathe. She could feel her breath come out in a harsh, raspy cough. She could feel the soft vibrations of his voice as he spoke to her, but the words she did not hear. Everything he said was just a deep "mmm," and he sounded like he was humming to her.
Had she come so close to bleeding to death that she suddenly became aware of things that she did not. She heard a heartbeat, but she was not directly on his chest, more or less a shoulder, or so she thought. She really wasn't sure. Her body had gone numb. No doubt she had lost a lot of blood. She could feel his warmth. That warmth. She knew she was cold. She couldn't feel it, but she knew it. She tried to open her eyes again, but she failed miserably.
Sometime after that, she fell asleep, her mind content with the warmth around her. It was after she woke up that the words began to make sense. The boy had been talking most of the time, whispering in soft words for her to be okay and not be dead. She probably looked dead, considering how cold and pale she was. She couldn't open her eyes yet, and she still breathed very hoarsely.
"Thank God. Be okay, be okay. Wake up, Lilus. I'm so sorry. Wake up."
The words were being analyzed. Who was that boy? Where had she heard that before?
The train...
Snid...
The Ravenclaw...
She opened her eyes a little bit, but they collapsed closed again. "Nnnnn..."
It was a pathetic attempt at speech, but she was still living. Now he knew she knew he was there. She had acknowledged him. He was there.
"Lilus...it's me. Can you hear me?"
"Sss..."
"It's Snid."
Silence.
"I was afraid to move you or else I would have taken you to Madame Pomfrey immediately. Forgive me."
Damn, her head hurt.
She opened her eyes, and they stayed open that time, but the image was still very blurry. She tried to move her arm, but it slid across her stomach and stung her side, gaining a sharp hiss from her.
"I think some of your ribs are broken. Do you want me to leave you and go find Professor Snape?"
She did her best to shake her head no. She felt him scoop her against her. It was very painful, but he managed to make it warmer. She closed her eyes again, blinking several times in an attempt to make the image clearer.
It came slightly into focus, but not much. It was still fuzzy.
"Please, you're awake now. Let me go get Professor Snape. He'll know what to do. I'll be right back. I promise."
He gently put her on the floor and took off the outer layer of his robes to blanket her with it. She lay curled up on the floor, her bruised and broken side free from any tension. It was so cold in the dungeon, even with her blood-soaked clothes and his cloak. Lilus wasn't sure how long she was there, but she drifted off to sleep eventually.
Snid came back with Professor Snape on his heels. Snape was an old man, but he still had muscle on his old body. He was surprisingly lean and in shape for someone of his age. Lilus felt her body being levitated into the air.
"I demand to know what happened," Snape spat at Snid.
"I swear, professor, I don't know. I just heard someone in the hallway talk about her being in the dungeon. I think it was a Slytherin who did it, sir."
She was levitated into the hospital wing, where more healing spells and a night stay were needed, not to mention a bloodcell growth spell. She was put in the bed to let the spells set in. Her headache was still throbbing, but she could see decently now. She was lying in bed with the bandage still around her head and side.
"Make that tomorrow night, okay, Lilus?" she heard Snid whisper before Madame Pomfrey sent him back to his house.
Of course it was him. She should have guessed that from the very beginning. The young man that was lost in the crowd. The boy with a rediculous but stunningly mysterious nickname. He wanted to meet her again. She probably owed him her life. There was no clue how long she would have survived in such a vast place as the dungeons. Only Snape and Filch knew the entire dungeon like the back of their hands.
*********************
Later, after she was out of the hospital wing, she just couldn't help but feel that she could be in there again very soon. The game was that day, and it happened to be Saturday, and Saturday meant no school, just free time. She left the hospital wing energized with a small headache, but it was just a little one.
As she walked through the door and into the Great Hall, Jason and all the gang jumped up and rushed over to her. They crowded her in a human forcefield.
"Lilus, Diego told us what happened. You never came back to the dorm last night," Jason said.
"Someone said that you were in the hospital wing all night," Justin said.
Soon, the air was full of disturbing questions that Lilus really wasn't in the mood to answer. For one, she didn't know much about what had happened. Diego and Kimmy sat across from her, their faces showing sympathy and admiration.
"I was slammed into the wall, and when I woke up, Snid was there."
"Snid? Who's Snid?" everyone said almost at the same time.
Snid. He had saved her. She didn't know what would happen if he had not come down there and found her.
"A friend...he...saved me," she said quietly.
She smiled awkwardly and ate, while Kimmy and Diego amused them with the finer details of the fight.
Their game was shortly before lunch. The professors had wanted to start it just after lunch because that was when it was warmest. They didn't want their players to freeze to death. She was scared. There was no telling just exactly what Frenchy and his goons did last night, and she felt a shame. She glared at him head on when she saw him at the lunch table. He glared back, but now, the hatred was smaller than before. He seemed to be laughing at her. He had won last night, but not after she took out probably six or eight of his friends. She would never be in that position again. Never. She'd have to get Jason to start practicing her spells with her again. She seemed to like punching and kicking more than hexing or jinxing. He loved to do both.
Jason was becoming more lovable by the day. She really didn't think he would be such a bad boyfriend. He was sweet. He was funny, sometimes anyway. He cared. He loved. It was a surprise that he was single. He had such a nice personality, and he wasn't bad looking. She had begged her boys not to go after the Slytherins for two reasons. One, if they got hurt, they wouldn't be in the game, and two, she didn't want to have to confront him before the game.
They decided to go hang out in the courtyard and practice transfiguring sticks and leaves into whatever came to mind. She had transfigured a stick into a small dagger, and the dagger into a necklace, and the necklace into the stick again. She leaned against the tree and closed her eyes, trying to remember every spell that she knew. She nodded off again, something that she had been doing very recently due to short blood shortage. She always felt tired, and she had to be alert during the game. She had never seen Frenchy play before.
She saw herself flying over a forest, arms outstretched but no wings. She was flying with just her body, her body. The air was warm. So warm. It reminded her of summertime at home, the heat from Snid's body. The warmth felt so good.
"Lilus, wake up. We have to go get ready for the game," Baker said, shaking her softly.
She smiled lazily and felt Charlie and Baker pull her to her feet. She stretched and looked around. There were other students in the courtyard, students that were studying or doing homework. Most had smiles on their faces under the sun. The ground was lightly covered with frost, but it seemed to attract more students than the green grass did.
Lilus followed Charlie and Baker down to the Quidditch field and into their dressing house. She went into the room specifically for girls and began to put on her armor and robes.
"Lilus, are you ready?"
"Yeah, hold on," she said, grabbing her broom and leaving the dressing room.
All the boys were dressed in their brightly colored uniforms. She smiled, taking in how bonded they all looked. They were ready for the battle.
"Let's kick some Slytherin ass," Diego roared, throwing his arm in the air.
There was a loud cheer that made the walls shake. Lilus cheered with them, ready for the game to begin.
**************************
"Minerva, Severus, any progress? Madame Pince?" Albus said, reading through one of the many tomes that he could get his hands on.
The teachers glanced upwards from their books and shook their heads with despair in their eyes before continuing to scan the pages of the books. There were so many, and they had been at it for a long time. Minerva closed her book and put it in an abandoned pile across from her and put her old face in her hands.
"Albus, forgive me! I just cannot remember where that article was," she cried.
"Minerva, it is quite alright. We just need to keep searching. I am sure that it will turn up," he replied softly.
"Minerva," said Madame Pince, "is it possible that you read the article at another place?"
Minerva nodded. "I could have been, but I do not recall when I read the article or else I would be able to know where. If it were for my ignorance, she could be saved!"
They saw someone enter the restricted section, and all their heads turned toward him. Remus Lupin stopped on the spot and dropped the three books he was holding.
"Oh, uh...so sorry. Was I interupting anything?" he said, his hands trembling slightly.
"Remus," Albus said, standing from his soft chair, "you are aware of your goddaughter's blood tears, are you not?"
Remus nodded. "Yes, Albus."
"Minerva recalls something that could mean the destruction of young Ms. Potter."
He nodded. "I know. I am trying to find a way to rid her of it. I read it in a book once. It was only mentioned, hinted at..."
Severus growled, "What is it?!"
"It is called Crimson Tears. I have tried to find a book on it, but it seems that this is something that has only happened one other time in history, and there was no record kept of it."
"What book had that in it?" Severus hissed.
"I cannot remember the book, but it had something to do with phantoms or ghosts or such," Remus said sadly. "It did not elaborate any on it. It just mentioned it."
"What could be doing that to her?" Minerva said shakily.
Severus folded his hands. "The same thing that allowed a sixteen-year-old witch smash her fist into a stone wall and break it."
"That puzzles me greatly," Albus said. "No strength of a child could possess that much force..."
Remus nodded. "We need to find something on Crimson Tears."
They called Madame Pince over to their table and began to write letters to their fellow professors at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang for any information on Crimson Tears. Any information would be vital.
"Should we tell Ms. Potter?" Minerva said.
"No, don't tell her," Remus said hastily. "She has too much to worry about now."
Albus nodded. "If Ms. Potter is not to know, we must make our research as quick as possible."
All the professors agreed.