Chapter 3

The first week of September started out surprisingly fast, but as the amount of homework grew steadily larger and larger, so did the days become slower and slower, getting dangerously close to the point where they would soon turn unbearable.

The weather was getting colder as well. It always happened; in the summer Lily would be excruciatingly hot to the point where she would do anything for fall to arrive. But when fall did arrive, the chilly air made her envy her days in the summer where she could wear a T-shirt without getting her fingers frostbitten.

As far as head girl duties went, Lily really didn't have much to do, which of course came as a relief to her. For one thing, it was bad enough having prefect duties as well as a large load of homework, another thing was she didn't have to spend any awkward moments with James, patrolling the halls with him. Although, truth be told, he wasn't bugging her as much as he had the years previous, and even stranger was she hadn't seen him hex anyone so far.

Was he just trying to get her off his back, or was he actually growing up? Well if he was, all Lily had to say to that was, 'Finally!'

Now besides the ever present worry of homework, was the fairly new arrival of the worry of Amy. And her abysmal flying skills.

Quidditch tryouts were being held in the middle of September and Lily had been spending the days before watching Amy practice, wand at the ready just in case Amy fell off her broomstick.

As far as Bridget went, she was acting normal enough and only Lily seemed to notice a weird vibe coming from her. Bridget didn't seem to care about things she used to. Her attitude with grades was changing; she didn't seem to care if she failed at anything and still continued to snap unexpectedly at Lily from time to time.

Lily decided the best thing for her to do about this was to simply ignore Bridget's odd behavior and concentrate on getting Amy out alive from the quidditch tryouts.

"Today's the day," Amy squealed excitedly joining the other girls at the Gryffindor table.

"Just be careful," Lily told her.

"You're just going to embarrass yourself," Alice warned. "Get out of it while you still have the chance."

"I've already made up my decision," Amy said angrily. "I think I have a chance. I've been training with Lily for the past two weeks with every free moment of my time."

"And the fact Lily doesn't know anything about quidditch never crossed your mind?" Bridget asked raising an eyebrow.

"I know how to stay on a broom," said Lily before taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"You guys are all coming to watch me tryout right?" Amy inquired.

"Yes," Alice and Bridget told her while Lily nodded.

"Oh here comes the mail," Alice commented unnecessarily.

"Doesn't look like there's anything for me," said Lily. "But - ah!" Lily fell backwards out of her seat, startled as Froad jumped out of the pitcher of pumpkin juice she had been holding a second before.

"Ew, Alice. We were drinking that," Amy said disgusted. "Keep that toad in its cage for crying out loud."

"I did put him in his cage," Alice defended removing her toad from the pitcher. "He keeps getting out though."

"Amy the tryouts are in five minutes," Lily glanced at her watch. "I suggest we start heading over to the pitch."

"Ya, alright."

The sky was a brilliant blue when they got outside and the birds where chirping a soft melody bringing some of the worry out of Lily.

"A sunny day," Amy smiled. "An omen?"

Lily laughed, "Sure. Whatever takes your mind off the nerves."

"I'm actually not a bit nervous," Amy told her.

"I've always admired that in you," Alice said. "You don't care about the consequences of anything. A good quality as well as a bad one. You tend to be reckless sometimes."

"Like now?" Bridget mocked.

"Ya, ya. We'll see who's laughing soon enough."

With that, Lily, Alice, and Bridget left Amy at the pitch and walked over to the bleachers to get some seats.

"I fear to watch," Alice said uneasily.

"I'm with Alice. This can only end in tears," Bridget wrapped her cloak around her. "And it may be sunny out here, but its freezing."

"There goes the first group," Alice announced.

Lily looked up in the air as six people rose into the sky and started flying around the goals. "Which group is Amy in?"

"I'm not sure. But I think she'll agree this day wasn't entirely wasted," Alice smirked. "Look at the master flirter."

Lily gazed over at her friend and indeed saw her chatting with the quidditch captain James. Oh let him ask her out now, she thought tentatively, then she won't have to go through with the tryout.

Wistful thinking it turned out to be. Amy's group was the second one to go into the air. Lily didn't see much of her tryout, for just when Amy kicked up off the ground, the redhead felt a smallweight jump onto her lap then leap off onto the ground.

"Um, Alice," she tapped her friend on the shoulder, "Your - "

"Shhh!" Alice hissed, her hands covering her eyes. "I don't want to hear it unless you're going to say Amy's tryout is over!"

"But - "

"No!"

Lily shrugged and leapt off the bench, her eyes on Froad. "Come on boy," she whispered crawling after him under the bleachers. "That's it. Just stay where you are I'm not - Ow!" Lily cried as her head collided with the top of the bench. "No! I said stay!" she called after the toad as it hopped onto the grass, croaked, and continued on its bid for freedom.

Lily inched out from under the bleachers, got to her feet, and started sprinting every which way after Froad.

"No, not in there!" She had stopped running as the toad landed on a tree stump at the edge of the forbidden forest after one large leap.

In the split second it took for Lily to reach into her pocket to pull out her wand, Froad had hurdled off into the darkness of the woods.

"Great," Lily mumbled. "Just great." And ignoring the constant warnings she had gotten from Filch and Dumbledore over the many years, she stepped into the forest, lighting her wand on the way.

"Here Froad. Come on..." Lily continued talking as though he could have heard her. She decided to go as far in the forest as she could, while still seeing the daylight. It wasn't long before she reached that point.

"Come on Froad. Please!" she hissed into the darkness. "I'll give you a large bag of dried fly's if you come out for me. Or how about some freshly caught juicy ones?"

Lily suddenly whirled around for she had just heard a soft rustling in the bushes behind where she was standing.

"Froad?"

Silence. Lily edged over to the stop where the noise had come from and brushed a few branches aside. "Froad is that you? Whoa!" Lily cried out in alarm for she had just stepped onto some damp wooden planks which couldn't support her weight, causing her to tumble down about four feet into a dank, dirt pit.

She stayed still for a moment, not moving a muscle, only breathing heavily. Just then she felt something fall on top of her head and screamed. Then, realizing what it must have been, Lily reached up and grasped the toad tightly in her hands. "Haha! Got you! No one gets away from Lily Evans! I - hey...what's that?"

Still clutching the toad tightly in her hands, she inched over to the spot where she had seen a glinting gold light.

"What have we got here..." Lily reached into the earth with one hand and extracted out a fairly large golden cup. She brushed some of the dirt aside with her thumb, revealing a carving of a badger.

"Hufflepuff," she whispered and stood up, cup in one hand, toad in the other. She figured it would be best to take the cup back to the school for someone had probably lost it.

She crawled out of the hole (this was a difficult feat to accomplish as she had no free hands to help hoist herself out) and started heading back in the direction of quidditch pitch.

When she got there however, she couldn't find any of her friends. Knowing it was her best chance, she walked up to James who was checking something on his clipboard and tapped him on the shoulder with the hand holding the cup. James looked up at her.

"James have you seen Amy?"

"Er, ya," she noticed he looked a little grim. "She's in the hospital wing. Fell off the broom about two feet off the ground. She landed on her arm in some weird way."

"Mm, I thought something like this would happen."

"I'm sure she's fine. Madam Pomfrey will fix her up. She reattached my finger up nicely before." His gaze was suddenly intent. "Why didn't you try out? I'd like you on the team."

"No you wouldn't. Trust me on that," Lily assured him. "I'm as bad as Amy. Oh that reminds me, don't remind her of this incident. She'll be horribly embarrassed and that was not her goal."

"I think she'll realize she didn't make the team."

"That -" Lily shifted her arm a bit for a firmer grasp on Froad who was still putting up a furious fight. "That wasn't what she came for."

"Then what was?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "You'll find out sooner or later. I've got to go." And with that she turned her back on him and walked over to the castle muttering, boys! under her breath.

xxx

"Let's hear it," Bridget ordered Amy.

"You were right," Amy sighed.

It was just after eight o'clock and Bridget, Alice, and Lily were sitting in the common room around a flustered Amy.

Amy looked over the common room sadly in the direction of James. "Alight I'll need another plan."

"Just ask him out," Lily said impatiently, not looking up from her transfiguration book.

"I can't do that!" Amy looked at her red haired friend incredulously. "I'm the girl. He's supposed to ask me out!"

"You're being old fashioned," Alice said scribbling out a few words from her ancient runes homework. "Lily's right."

"As usual," Bridget uttered a sigh.

"But if you insist then I suggest just being yourself," Lily closed her book. "Oh, but make it painfully obvious you like him. He doesn't seem to be getting the little hints you've left him so far." She dropped her book in her bag and pulled out the cup. "Also, while I was out rescuing Alice's toad, I found this cup. Know anyone who could have lost it?"

Alice reached out and took the cup from Lily's hands, examining it closely. "Some Hufflepuff's it looks like."

"Helga Hufflepuff's by the look of the badger," Amy added. "It looks pretty old. Like it was around for almost a thousand years."

"If it was," Bridget dipped her quill into a pot of ink, "then no one would have lost it and you'd get to keep it."

"I don't really want to keep it," Lily took the cup out of Alice's hands and dropped it into her bag.

"But think of how valuable it must be," Bridget looked at her astounded. "It'd be worth a fortune if Helga really did own it."

"If Helga did own it I'd give it to Dumbledore," Lily pulled out her book once more.

"It could also be Hagrid's," Amy pointed out. "He's the only one who goes into the forbidden forest. Well besides the marauders...and you've been in there a few times..."

"I'll go over to his place tomorrow," Lily told them. "I was thinking of seeing him anyways. Are you coming?"

"Of course I'll come," Alice guaranteed.

"Probably," Bridget screwed the top back onto her ink bottle and started rolling up the parchment.

Amy just nodded, eyes back on James. "It's not like I have any other plans..."

"Just go ask him," Alice said impatiently. "No one's stopping you."

"There's a hogsmeade weekend on Halloween," Bridget pointed out. "Ask him to if he would like to go with you."

"Maybe later..." Amy hesitated. "I still have loads of time before then."

Lily couldn't help laughing a bit at her friend. "Just do it before someone else does. He too popular for his own good."

xxx

Lily was walking down a long dirt road that kept swaying beneath her feet. There was nothing on either side of her; it was like she was in space and the only light she had was that of a million stars. She didn't know where the path was taking her, but she knew it was her destiny, so she kept walking.

She had been walking for awhile and felt as though she was about to drift off somewhere else, loose her balance and tumble into the depths of space, but she wouldn't let that happen. She kept moving until the dizziness overcame her and she knew she would have to lay down on the path to receive some steadiness. But she didn't move; she stayed upright for she had seen the gold glint that was the cup. It was calling to her, and then she became frightened.

It did not have a friendly voice at all. It was incredibly deep, so terrible the sound was it shook the already unsteady path until Lily was crying out for it to stop. But it wasn't listening to her.

She kept shouting to it, but it just kept getting louder and louder, the path shaking more violently. Lily's eyes widened in fear as the dirt crumbled beneath her feet sending her falling down into the darkness...and then she heard laughing. The cup was laughing cruelly at her while she screamed for help and then -

Lily's eyes snapped open, her breathing coming in deep gasps. It was alright. She was in her bed safe and sound, it was just a dream.

Lily sat up, letting her covers fall off her. It was still dark, and glancing at her watch, Lily saw it was only five am. She collapsed back onto her bed and stayed there, eyes open, listening to the soft pitter patter of the rain outside.

After a few minutes, Lily rolled over to the side of her bed and reached into her bag pulling out the cup. After her first glimpse of it she almost screamed out loud for she could have sworn she had just seen a face carved into it, complete with red eyes. But she only uttered a small gasp and dropped the cup, which thankfully didn't wake up any of her bunkmates.

Lily exhaled and lay bad down, closing her eyes, trying to get back to sleep. After an hour however, she gave up on that and decided to get up out of bed.

"Getting up at six o'clock on a Sunday," she muttered under her breath while looked for some clothes, "a new low."

She went over to the window and looked down on the grounds below. The light was on in Hagrid's hut. Seeing as she had nothing better to do, she decided to go over and visit him as soon as she got dressed.

It was still dark and very chilly outside, and Lily pulled her cloak around her, regretting the fact she had worn such a thin t-shirt, but at the same time glad she had chosen to put on her boots instead of sneakers.

Lily stepped up to Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door. She could hear pots banging around inside, Lily waited, clutching the golden cup tightly in her left hand.

The door suddenly swung open and Lily jumped back in surprise. "Ah, Hagrid you startled me!"

"Lily?" Hagrid peered down at her curiously. "Wha' are ye doin' here a' this hour?"

"I couldn't sleep," Lily replied. "And I wanted to ask you something."

"Alrigh', come in then," Hagrid opened the door up a little wider and Lily entered the hut. "Sit down," he gestured to her.

"Thanks," said Lily sitting down at the table. She waited for Hagrid to join her. When he sat down she placed the cup out in front of him.

"I was wondering if you'd lost it," she told him while he picked up the goblet and examined it.

"Nah, its not mine...it looks like it belongs to a Hufflepuff."

"Yes that's what Alice assumed only I found it in the forbidden forest," said Lily taking the cup back. "So I thought maybe it was yours."

Hagrid looked at her shocked. "I thought I'd gotten ya away from that place for good! What were ya doin' in the forbidden forest!"

"Oh, I was chasing after Alice's toad," Lily explained patiently.

"Ya risked your life for a toad!"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Oh come on, you go in there all the time."

"Ya, but I'm - well - ya kno'...half giant," he whispered the last two words. "There's nothin' in tha' forest that can hurt me." He gazed down at her intently. "Why don' ya ask James or Sirius? Those two go in there all the time."

"You don't try and stop them from going in there?" Lily asked bitterly.

"Well o' course I did. But like everyone else here, I gave up on them."

"Mmm," Lily mumbled. "Yes, I suppose I should ask them." She got up from the table. "Well thanks for your help Hagrid."

"Leavin' so soon?" he asked, disappointed.

"I'm going to have breakfast. I also didn't tell Amy, or Alice where I was going and I don't want them to worry." In truth Lily was sure they had figured out where she had gone, but she didn't want to end up eating breakfast at Hagrid. She'd already had too many bad experiences with his infamous cooking. "Aren't you coming to the great hall?"

"I migh'," he replied getting up from the table. "I just thought I'd go visit Aragog first. Haven' seen 'im in a while."

"Aragog?" Lily questioned.

"Just a friend o' mine."

"Right," Lily said then walked over to the door. "Hope to see you later. Bye." She smiled and waved at him.

Hagrid waved back and Lily stepped back outside. The sun had now come up and Lily's stomach was growling. She broke into a run back towards the castle.

xxx

"Well was it his?" Amy asked when Lily joined her at the table.

Lily shook her head. "He suggested I ask James or Sirius seeing is how they like to venture of into the forest from time to time."

"Oh! Can I ask James if its his, please!"

"Fine," Lily told Amy. "Ask Sirius too while you're at it. I - hey!" she called out for Amy had just taken the cup out of her hands and got up, walking in the direction of James and his friends.

"She's hopeless," Alice sighed.

Lily grabbed a piece of toast and faced Alice, "True. James Potter I ask you..."

"Oh, I got a letter!" Alice suddenly squealed. "I actually got a letter, I never get mail, I - " her face fell. "Oh it's for Bridget." She looked down at the owl grumpily as if it was his fault.

"Where is Bridget?" Lily asked while mentally reminding herself, don't be nosy. "Is she still sleeping."

"I - " Alice looked around the great hall. "That's funny. She was with Amy and I a minute ago..."

"Give me the letter. I can give it to her."

Alice looked at her friend suspiciously. "You're going to open it!" she accused, snatching the letter up and stuffing it in her pocket. "I'll take it to her."

"Fine," Lily sighed.

"Nope," Amy rejoined them, "It's not either of theirs."

"Did you get the date?" Alice inquired.

"No," Amy exhaled. "It didn't come up...but I have lots of time...sort of. I'll ask him to go to hogsmeade with me sooner or later..."

"Amy did you see Bridget leave the table?" Lily said, unable to hold in her curiosity any longer.

"No, why?" Amy looked around. "Oh, she's missing again..."

"There's something weird going on with her," Lily voiced yet again.

"I think so to, but try not to draw attention to it," Alice told her taking a bite of scrambled eggs. "Bridget will rip your hair out."

"Ya, I've noticed she's been flipping out a lot lately," Amy grabbed a few kippers and piled them onto her plate. "It's like she'll murder anyone just to get them to leave her alone."

"I'm finding it a bit annoying. What's her problem?" Alice said irritated.

"I knew it!" Lily smiled in spite of herself. "You did notice strange stuff concerning her!"

"Well it's not like we can find out what's bothering her," Amy said, mouth full of food, "Oh here's your cup back, Lily."

"Why can't we find out?" Lily took the cup from Amy's hands.

"Because then she'll murder us," Alice said calmly. "Best leave her alone."

"Good plan Alice," Amy swallowed. "I'd forget about it Lily. She'll get over it. She always does."

"Mmm..." Lily played around with the eggs on her plate, thinking.

There's chapter three. The horcrux has been found, but Lily never does find out what it really is. Too cheesy in my opinion. I'm hoping you readers are curious as to what's going on with Bridget.