Chapter 27 – Dreaming Memories
Lily was sitting outside of Honeydukes with Sirius, Remus and Peter, tapping her foot impatiently, and listening idly to the three boys chatting about something or other. Every few seconds she would glance down the street and every time she would return to tapping her foot and occasionally sighing in frustration. At a break in the conversation, Lily glanced at her friends and saw that they were watching something. Sirius was standing and gesturing wildly. Lily followed their eye line and saw that Carly and James were approaching.
Lily, Remus and Peter also stood up and joined Sirius as he went to meet James and Carly halfway. "It's about bleeding time you two showed up," Lily said irritably, with a scowl on her face. "Can we go now?"
Carly and James looked at her in surprise. "Christ, Lily, what's up with you?" asked James. "You don't have PMS, do you?"
"No Potter I don't have PMS. I'm just pissed at having to wait twenty minutes for you guys!"
"Bloody hell Li, what is your problem today? It's not like you're Ms Punctuality," said Carly. "In fact, you're the one who's always late, so don't even think about yelling at us about it again."
"You know what? Just forget it. I'll see you later." Lily glared at the couple then stomped off in the direction of the Hog's Head, leaving the others watching her in confusion.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Peter.
"I don't know but I should go find out," said Carly, extricating herself from James.
"No, Carly, you stay here." Remus stopped her and explained, "Lily only seemed impatient until she saw you and James. It was when you two arrived that she got angry for some reason. I'll go talk to her."
James watched as Remus walked off to find Lily. Carly looked at him and tried to get his attention. "James? James!"
"What?" James looked at her, startled. "Oh sorry, babe, just thinking about something."
'Great,' thought Carly. 'Now he's going to be thinking about perfect Lily for the rest of the day.'
"Come on," she said. "Sirius and Peter have already gone inside."
James and Carly walked into the Three Broomsticks and sat down with Peter and Sirius. James was deep in thought. He was getting worried about Lily. He'd noticed that Lily had been mad quite a bit lately. James knew Lily had a fiery temper sometimes; he'd been on the receiving end of it enough times to know. But he also knew Lily well enough to know that the little things didn't often upset her. Especially not something as small as someone being late. Not when more often than not she was the one who was late.
There was one other thing bothering him. Lily wasn't really much of a jewellery person. Carly had managed to convince Lily to get her ears pierced during the last summer holidays, so Lily now always wore either dangly or hoop earrings. She also wore one black bracelet. James had never seen her in a necklace and maybe once wearing a ring. However, in the past couple of weeks since just before the Easter holidays had started, James had noticed that Lily had been wearing a necklace with a large red stone hanging from it. Carly liked it because she thought it might be the first step towards Lily acting and dressing girlier, never mind the fact that Lily enjoyed wearing skirts and was constantly playing with her hair. But there was something about it that James didn't like. It was probably just the fact that whenever he looked at it, the stone seemed to glow, as if it had a life of its own.
Remus had managed to catch up to Lily just as she slammed her way into the Hog's Head. But as he followed her in somebody stepped in front of him blocking his view of the red head. "Remus Lupin, good to see you."
Remus took a better look at the young man in front of him. "Mundungus Fletcher," he replied. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"You owe me money don't you Lupin?"
"Ah Dung, I believe it's the other way around. You've owed me 63 galleons since you left Hogwarts at the end of last year. Pay up."
Mundungus grumbled and groaned but took out the money and gave it to Remus. "One more thing Mundungus," Remus said as he looked around the pub. "You can't see Lily Evans anywhere can you?"
"Evans? Red hair, average height?"
"That's the one."
"Sorry Remus, I haven't seen her since I graduated."
Remus sighed. "Thanks Dung. I'll see you another time."
Remus left the Hog's Head and began walking back to the Three Broomsticks. Remus knew that James was worried about how Lily had been acting recently. Until today Remus had thought that James was overreacting. But he was starting to think James had a point. For one thing Remus had never seen Lily get angry at Carly before, especially when there was no reason for that anger. Second, when Lily had started berating James and Carly for their tardiness, the necklace she was wearing had started pulsing with a red light. The next time he saw her, Remus was going to ask Lily where the necklace had come from.
He sat down next to Sirius and shook his head. "I followed Lily into the Hog's Head but Mundungus Fletcher cut me off and I lost sight of her. The one consolation was I finally got Dung to pay the 63 galleons he owed me." Remus picked up the butterbeer James gave him and asked, "Has anyone noticed anything unusual about Li's necklace?"
"You've noticed it too?" James replied.
"Noticed what?" Sirius asked.
"That Lily's necklace glows. Whenever I look at it, it's glowing. It makes me feel uneasy."
"Really?" said Remus. "Well when Lily was talking to you and Carly the stone was pulsing with this sort of red light. No one else has seen anything like this happening?"
Peter, Sirius and Carly all shook their heads, indicating that they hadn't. It was at this point in the conversation that Lily suddenly appeared and sat down across from Peter. "Hey guys," she said brightly, grinning. "What are you talking about?"
"Actually Lily," said James, "we were just discussing your lovely necklace. What sort of stone is that?"
"I'm not actually sure."
"Where did you get it?" Remus inquired.
"A small shop in Diagon Alley. It cost 10 galleons."
"Which shop was it?" persisted Remus.
"A small shop in Diagon Alley. It cost 10 galleons."
The others all exchanged glances. "Lily, Remus is going to ask you again where got the necklace," James said. "I want you to answer 'A large shop in Knockturn Alley.' Okay?" Lily nodded, perplexed.
"Where did the necklace come from?"
"A lar- a lar- a la small shop in Diagon Alley." Lily looked at her friends. "Why couldn't I say it?"
"Memory Charm?" Remus asked James.
"I think so." James looked back over at Lily. "Li, I think you should go see Madam Pomfrey. I'm pretty sure there's a potion that restores a person's memory. Can you remember the first time you wore it?"
Lily shook her head, beginning to look distressed. "Can anyone else remember?" asked Peter.
"I think it was two weeks ago," answered Carly immediately. "And I think I'm remembering something else. Lily whenever you got really angry lately, you'd blow up at someone but then not long after, not straight away but maybe like an hour later, you'd be extremely tired, almost like you had no energy."
"You mean, you think the necklace is draining Lily's energy?" Sirius said.
Lily stared at him with wide eyes then began scrabbling at the back of her neck trying to find the clasp. She unlocked it and threw the necklace onto the table. The eerie read glow the stone had been emitting ceased and the necklace lay there innocently. "I don't like having my mind tampered with," Lily said in a soft, angry voice as she stared at the necklace. "I want my memory back." She looked at her friends, her eyes cold with fury.
Thirty minutes later Carly and the Marauders were sitting around Lily's bed in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey had administered the potion and said that it would take effect by putting Lily to sleep and restoring the memory through a dream. The five teenagers were now waiting for Lily to reawaken.
Carly looked at her best friend, feeling worried. "Do you think she'll be-"
She was cut off as Lily gasped as she opened her eyes. Lily looked around the room wildly as she said, "Mal... Vol... neck... mug..."
Carly's eyes widened and she moved to sit on the bed in front of Lily. "Lily, look at me," she said calmly. "Calm down. Breathe." Lily took a deep breath and shut her eyes briefly. "Okay now tell us what happened."
"Okay so I went to sleep," Lily began, "and for awhile everything was black. But then I began to see an image. I was sitting on a chair in a dark room and Malfoy and I think Rodulphus Lestrange, you know that guy who graduated at the end of our fourth year? They were standing in front of me and Lestrange was holding a black box. No it was a jewellery case. The kind that necklaces come in. so then Malfoy said something, I can't remember what, and Lestrange opened up the box. Malfoy took out the necklace," Lily pointed to the necklace on the bedside table, "and walked around behind me. He moved my hair aside and bent down to whisper in my ear as he put the necklace around my throat. He said, 'The Dark Lord has taken an interest in you Lillian. Consider this a gift from him.' Hey! He called me Lillian again. My name is Lily, damn it!"
"Lady Lily, stay focused here," Sirius commented.
"Right, sorry. So the only thing after that is Malfoy moved away from me and Lestrange cast the Memory Charm and I woke up. Of course, when Malfoy said 'Dark Lord' I assumed Voldemort."
"Okay let's go see Dumbledore," said Sirius. "This is just what we need."
"Need for what?" asked James.
"The proof we needed."
"What are you trying to prove Sirius?" Carly inquired.
"That Malfoy is in league with Voldemort. He'll get expelled."
"Sirius we don't have any proof," Remus told him gently.
"Yes we do. Lily's memory."
"It's not real proof Sirius," said Lily. "First off the Ministry is trying to cover up everything to do with Voldemort right? You think they'd be happy about the cover up being exposed if a student was expelled for his relationship with Voldemort? Second, the only 'proof' we have is a memory I lost and only got back because of a potion. Malfoy and his rich daddy could easily claim that something had been faulty with the potion, or even that I simply made the whole thing up. Finally Malfoy knew exactly what he was doing just in case I did work out something weird was going on and covered his tracks. He never mentioned Voldemort's name but called him 'The Dark Lord', which could mean anyone, and Lestrange was the one who Obliviated me so Malfoy can't even get in trouble for casting a Memory Charm on another student. I'm afraid there's not a bloody thing we can do about it."
The group looked downcast until Peter suggested, "We could destroy the necklace."
"What good would that do?" Carly asked bitingly.
"Well," said Peter, "it's unlikely to be able to help Lily now, because it's safe to assume, I think, that Voldemort was taking all the energy that the stone drained from Lily."
"Yeah, so?" James interrupted.
"Let me finish. So what if that stone enhances the emotions of anyone who wears it, not just Lily, and would therefore drain anyone's energy once they had displayed strong emotions?"
"Peter has a really good point," said Remus. "We can't just leave this blasted necklace as it is. Anyone could walk along, pick it up and start wearing it. Voldemort's stolen enough energy. He doesn't need more."
Sirius picked up the necklace and held it out to Lily. "Care to do the honours Li?"
Lily slowly took the necklace from him and moved to the end of the bed where there was a sharp, metal corner. She raised her arm and brought it down hard. The stone shattered and Lily let the drain from her fingers to the floor as she fell back against her pillow.
"It's over," Carly said.
"No it's not," Lily said quietly, but deadly. Her friends look at her. She continued, "Nothing will ever be over until Voldemort is dead."
Lily was sitting outside of Honeydukes with Sirius, Remus and Peter, tapping her foot impatiently, and listening idly to the three boys chatting about something or other. Every few seconds she would glance down the street and every time she would return to tapping her foot and occasionally sighing in frustration. At a break in the conversation, Lily glanced at her friends and saw that they were watching something. Sirius was standing and gesturing wildly. Lily followed their eye line and saw that Carly and James were approaching.
Lily, Remus and Peter also stood up and joined Sirius as he went to meet James and Carly halfway. "It's about bleeding time you two showed up," Lily said irritably, with a scowl on her face. "Can we go now?"
Carly and James looked at her in surprise. "Christ, Lily, what's up with you?" asked James. "You don't have PMS, do you?"
"No Potter I don't have PMS. I'm just pissed at having to wait twenty minutes for you guys!"
"Bloody hell Li, what is your problem today? It's not like you're Ms Punctuality," said Carly. "In fact, you're the one who's always late, so don't even think about yelling at us about it again."
"You know what? Just forget it. I'll see you later." Lily glared at the couple then stomped off in the direction of the Hog's Head, leaving the others watching her in confusion.
"What's wrong with her?" asked Peter.
"I don't know but I should go find out," said Carly, extricating herself from James.
"No, Carly, you stay here." Remus stopped her and explained, "Lily only seemed impatient until she saw you and James. It was when you two arrived that she got angry for some reason. I'll go talk to her."
James watched as Remus walked off to find Lily. Carly looked at him and tried to get his attention. "James? James!"
"What?" James looked at her, startled. "Oh sorry, babe, just thinking about something."
'Great,' thought Carly. 'Now he's going to be thinking about perfect Lily for the rest of the day.'
"Come on," she said. "Sirius and Peter have already gone inside."
James and Carly walked into the Three Broomsticks and sat down with Peter and Sirius. James was deep in thought. He was getting worried about Lily. He'd noticed that Lily had been mad quite a bit lately. James knew Lily had a fiery temper sometimes; he'd been on the receiving end of it enough times to know. But he also knew Lily well enough to know that the little things didn't often upset her. Especially not something as small as someone being late. Not when more often than not she was the one who was late.
There was one other thing bothering him. Lily wasn't really much of a jewellery person. Carly had managed to convince Lily to get her ears pierced during the last summer holidays, so Lily now always wore either dangly or hoop earrings. She also wore one black bracelet. James had never seen her in a necklace and maybe once wearing a ring. However, in the past couple of weeks since just before the Easter holidays had started, James had noticed that Lily had been wearing a necklace with a large red stone hanging from it. Carly liked it because she thought it might be the first step towards Lily acting and dressing girlier, never mind the fact that Lily enjoyed wearing skirts and was constantly playing with her hair. But there was something about it that James didn't like. It was probably just the fact that whenever he looked at it, the stone seemed to glow, as if it had a life of its own.
Remus had managed to catch up to Lily just as she slammed her way into the Hog's Head. But as he followed her in somebody stepped in front of him blocking his view of the red head. "Remus Lupin, good to see you."
Remus took a better look at the young man in front of him. "Mundungus Fletcher," he replied. "To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"You owe me money don't you Lupin?"
"Ah Dung, I believe it's the other way around. You've owed me 63 galleons since you left Hogwarts at the end of last year. Pay up."
Mundungus grumbled and groaned but took out the money and gave it to Remus. "One more thing Mundungus," Remus said as he looked around the pub. "You can't see Lily Evans anywhere can you?"
"Evans? Red hair, average height?"
"That's the one."
"Sorry Remus, I haven't seen her since I graduated."
Remus sighed. "Thanks Dung. I'll see you another time."
Remus left the Hog's Head and began walking back to the Three Broomsticks. Remus knew that James was worried about how Lily had been acting recently. Until today Remus had thought that James was overreacting. But he was starting to think James had a point. For one thing Remus had never seen Lily get angry at Carly before, especially when there was no reason for that anger. Second, when Lily had started berating James and Carly for their tardiness, the necklace she was wearing had started pulsing with a red light. The next time he saw her, Remus was going to ask Lily where the necklace had come from.
He sat down next to Sirius and shook his head. "I followed Lily into the Hog's Head but Mundungus Fletcher cut me off and I lost sight of her. The one consolation was I finally got Dung to pay the 63 galleons he owed me." Remus picked up the butterbeer James gave him and asked, "Has anyone noticed anything unusual about Li's necklace?"
"You've noticed it too?" James replied.
"Noticed what?" Sirius asked.
"That Lily's necklace glows. Whenever I look at it, it's glowing. It makes me feel uneasy."
"Really?" said Remus. "Well when Lily was talking to you and Carly the stone was pulsing with this sort of red light. No one else has seen anything like this happening?"
Peter, Sirius and Carly all shook their heads, indicating that they hadn't. It was at this point in the conversation that Lily suddenly appeared and sat down across from Peter. "Hey guys," she said brightly, grinning. "What are you talking about?"
"Actually Lily," said James, "we were just discussing your lovely necklace. What sort of stone is that?"
"I'm not actually sure."
"Where did you get it?" Remus inquired.
"A small shop in Diagon Alley. It cost 10 galleons."
"Which shop was it?" persisted Remus.
"A small shop in Diagon Alley. It cost 10 galleons."
The others all exchanged glances. "Lily, Remus is going to ask you again where got the necklace," James said. "I want you to answer 'A large shop in Knockturn Alley.' Okay?" Lily nodded, perplexed.
"Where did the necklace come from?"
"A lar- a lar- a la small shop in Diagon Alley." Lily looked at her friends. "Why couldn't I say it?"
"Memory Charm?" Remus asked James.
"I think so." James looked back over at Lily. "Li, I think you should go see Madam Pomfrey. I'm pretty sure there's a potion that restores a person's memory. Can you remember the first time you wore it?"
Lily shook her head, beginning to look distressed. "Can anyone else remember?" asked Peter.
"I think it was two weeks ago," answered Carly immediately. "And I think I'm remembering something else. Lily whenever you got really angry lately, you'd blow up at someone but then not long after, not straight away but maybe like an hour later, you'd be extremely tired, almost like you had no energy."
"You mean, you think the necklace is draining Lily's energy?" Sirius said.
Lily stared at him with wide eyes then began scrabbling at the back of her neck trying to find the clasp. She unlocked it and threw the necklace onto the table. The eerie read glow the stone had been emitting ceased and the necklace lay there innocently. "I don't like having my mind tampered with," Lily said in a soft, angry voice as she stared at the necklace. "I want my memory back." She looked at her friends, her eyes cold with fury.
Thirty minutes later Carly and the Marauders were sitting around Lily's bed in the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey had administered the potion and said that it would take effect by putting Lily to sleep and restoring the memory through a dream. The five teenagers were now waiting for Lily to reawaken.
Carly looked at her best friend, feeling worried. "Do you think she'll be-"
She was cut off as Lily gasped as she opened her eyes. Lily looked around the room wildly as she said, "Mal... Vol... neck... mug..."
Carly's eyes widened and she moved to sit on the bed in front of Lily. "Lily, look at me," she said calmly. "Calm down. Breathe." Lily took a deep breath and shut her eyes briefly. "Okay now tell us what happened."
"Okay so I went to sleep," Lily began, "and for awhile everything was black. But then I began to see an image. I was sitting on a chair in a dark room and Malfoy and I think Rodulphus Lestrange, you know that guy who graduated at the end of our fourth year? They were standing in front of me and Lestrange was holding a black box. No it was a jewellery case. The kind that necklaces come in. so then Malfoy said something, I can't remember what, and Lestrange opened up the box. Malfoy took out the necklace," Lily pointed to the necklace on the bedside table, "and walked around behind me. He moved my hair aside and bent down to whisper in my ear as he put the necklace around my throat. He said, 'The Dark Lord has taken an interest in you Lillian. Consider this a gift from him.' Hey! He called me Lillian again. My name is Lily, damn it!"
"Lady Lily, stay focused here," Sirius commented.
"Right, sorry. So the only thing after that is Malfoy moved away from me and Lestrange cast the Memory Charm and I woke up. Of course, when Malfoy said 'Dark Lord' I assumed Voldemort."
"Okay let's go see Dumbledore," said Sirius. "This is just what we need."
"Need for what?" asked James.
"The proof we needed."
"What are you trying to prove Sirius?" Carly inquired.
"That Malfoy is in league with Voldemort. He'll get expelled."
"Sirius we don't have any proof," Remus told him gently.
"Yes we do. Lily's memory."
"It's not real proof Sirius," said Lily. "First off the Ministry is trying to cover up everything to do with Voldemort right? You think they'd be happy about the cover up being exposed if a student was expelled for his relationship with Voldemort? Second, the only 'proof' we have is a memory I lost and only got back because of a potion. Malfoy and his rich daddy could easily claim that something had been faulty with the potion, or even that I simply made the whole thing up. Finally Malfoy knew exactly what he was doing just in case I did work out something weird was going on and covered his tracks. He never mentioned Voldemort's name but called him 'The Dark Lord', which could mean anyone, and Lestrange was the one who Obliviated me so Malfoy can't even get in trouble for casting a Memory Charm on another student. I'm afraid there's not a bloody thing we can do about it."
The group looked downcast until Peter suggested, "We could destroy the necklace."
"What good would that do?" Carly asked bitingly.
"Well," said Peter, "it's unlikely to be able to help Lily now, because it's safe to assume, I think, that Voldemort was taking all the energy that the stone drained from Lily."
"Yeah, so?" James interrupted.
"Let me finish. So what if that stone enhances the emotions of anyone who wears it, not just Lily, and would therefore drain anyone's energy once they had displayed strong emotions?"
"Peter has a really good point," said Remus. "We can't just leave this blasted necklace as it is. Anyone could walk along, pick it up and start wearing it. Voldemort's stolen enough energy. He doesn't need more."
Sirius picked up the necklace and held it out to Lily. "Care to do the honours Li?"
Lily slowly took the necklace from him and moved to the end of the bed where there was a sharp, metal corner. She raised her arm and brought it down hard. The stone shattered and Lily let the drain from her fingers to the floor as she fell back against her pillow.
"It's over," Carly said.
"No it's not," Lily said quietly, but deadly. Her friends look at her. She continued, "Nothing will ever be over until Voldemort is dead."