Disclaimer: whoops, forgot about this. I don't own anything.
Chapter 4
As the semester moved into October so did the weather become much colder. The frost was starting to show itself after the first week, giving the students a false impression of winter snow.
Of course since it wasn't real snow, the only children that could be seen outside were the unfortunate souls who had Care of Magical Creatures and those who had to walk over to the greenhouses for Herbology. A class Lily had to endure at least three times a week.
It was another one of those days when it looked like there was no end to the pouring rain cascading down on the students, a day Lily just happened to have Herbology.
"I could really use some Felix Felicis right now," Lily muttered as her, Amy, Alice, and Bridget stumbled through the mud towards they're next class.
"I thought you liked rain?" Bridget mocked.
"I like rain," Lily reassured her now sopping wet friend. "But I'm not as fond of mud."
"You and me both," Alice agreed.
"Well I just wish I hadn't made up my hair today," Amy shivered.
"I was meaning to ask you about that Amy," Alice said. "What's with the hair?"
Amy smiled proudly, "Today is the day I'm going to ask James to Hogsmeade!"
All three of her friends groaned.
"Not this again," Bridget opened the door to greenhouse three and they all stepped in.
"I promise I'll stop bugging you all about it as soon as the date is arranged," Amy shrugged off her coat and sat down on the carpeted floor.
Lily joined her on the ground, "Alright, but just do it soon."
"Patience," Amy teased. "I'll do it today in Care of Magical Creatures class."
"Haha, you poor soul," Bridget jeered. Amy glared at her.
"And Amy your hair looks fine," Lily assured her. "I'd give you the spell to keep the rain off, but I forgot it."
"Thanks Lily," Amy said sarcastically.
xxx
"Lily!"
It was just after Herbology class and Lily was heading back to the common room; the only one of her friends to have a break. She stopped in her tracks and turned to see who had addressed her.
At first it was hard to make him out in the rain, still coming down strong, but Lily was soon happy to see it was Dominique who had called her.
"Oh hi," she smiled at him. "Do you have a break too?"
Dom walked over to her, "Ya. Oh I'm glad you have one now. I thought I'd have to endure it alone."
"Well, you'd have more time for homework," Lily grinned. "You have to work on those grades this year. You most defiantly don't want to get on Mcgonagall's bad side."
"Hey, I passed Transfiguration the second time!"
Lily just smiled. "Right sorry."
"Um, do you want to go for a walk around the grounds with me?" He asked, a hint of nervousness now in his previously cheerful voice. Even through the think haze of rain between them Lily could see his face had turned a deep shade of magenta.
"Um...sure," Lily said. "In all of this rain?"
"I thought you liked the rain?" he said, face slowly starting to turn back into its original pale colour.
"I do. Just not the mud. Let's go then," Lily said. "Want to head this way?" she gestured to the lake.
"Alright."
And so they headed over there, thoughts milling through Lily's mind. The one overpowering all of the others was, did he mean as just friends? If he did then why did he turn such a deep shade of scarlet when he suggested it?
They were walking in complete silence, listening to the soft pattering of the now lessening rainfall. Lily was looking at the ground before her now muddy boots, suddenly aware they had reached the lake and were now moving around it at a slow pace. She looked up at Dom who she noticed was looking at her intently.
"You want to ask me something," Lily told him.
Dom looked away from her startled, "N-no, I don't. Why...what makes you think that?"
"You do. I can see it in your face," Lily stopped walking. "What is it? Is it about Mcgonagall?"
"What?" he looked confused. "No, its about you."
"And Mcgonagall?" Lily stalled for time, sure of what was about to come next.
"No, Mcgonagall's not involved. I - " He paused and looked back down upon her. "I was wondering if you'd like to come with me to Hogsmeade this Halloween. I - I mean," he continued after Lily hadn't answered, "If you don't want to you don't have. I just thought I'd - "
"No, no. I - Of course I want to," Lily pulled her face back into a smile. Why not? She never would have considered it before now, but then again she had never really thought about it. But as she was getting used to the idea, she found she was starting to like it more and more. If it had to be someone, why not Dom?
Though despite these more positive thoughts, there was something in the back of Lily's mind that was disagreeing. Why? She didn't know.
Dom smiled back at her. "Really?"
Lily nodded. "I'd love to."
"Ok great."
They then continued making their way around the lake, until finally after one lap, Dom stopped walking and suggested they stop under a large beech tree to get out of the rain.
Lily hadn't even noticed how drenched she had become and eagerly agreed.
They stood underneath the tree, both watching the rain pour down in buckets onto the earth. It was like they were standing behind a waterfall.
"I never thought you'd say yes," Dom said finally after a long moments silence.
"I probably wouldn't have until today," Lily said now watching the Care of Magical Creatures class gather around a dazzling white unicorn. Well at least Amy will be happy whether or not she did ask James out and if he accepted or not, she thought. Amy looked very happy indeed, gently stroking the horse, a large grin on her face.
Lily looked past her at the boys who were standing back. She spotted James almost immediately, chatting with his three best friends.
"But I thought I'd try today anyway," Dom continued. Lily tore her gaze away from James to face him.
"Hmm," Lily muttered quietly.
"I've noticed a lot of other people feel about you in a way they shouldn't," Dom looked away from her, his blue eyes falling back to the ground. "I was worried I would be too late."
"I wouldn't have said yes to just anybody," Lily said. "I'd have to know them for awhile before I even considered it. And I know you very well and would like to go out with you." She picked absentmindedly at the bark of the tree, "I'm glad you asked me."
Dom only smiled. They looked at each other for a moment then Dom stuck out his hand, "May I?"
Lily took it almost immediately. "Let's go back inside. I need to go to the library and finish some homework."
"Oh - ok," Dom looked a little disappointed, but, still clutching her hand, he walked with her back towards the castle without another word.
xxx
"I knew it!" Alice squealed when Lily had finished telling her the story. It was just after dinner and the both of them were sitting in the library finishing up on their Charms homework. "I saw the two of you together the moment you met! You're so perfect for each other, he's so sweet and kind and-"
"Alice stop," Lily held up a hand, "Please you're making me sick."
"Sorry," Alice smiled sheepishly. "But anyone could have seen it...except you..." she added.
"I don't even know about this. I'll see how Halloween goes," Lily said dipping her quill in a pot of ink.
Alice looked at her happily and repeated, "I knew it!"
"Knew what?" Amy joined them at the table, a look of disappointment on her face. "I missed you two at dinner. I was wondering where you'd got to."
"Dom asked Lily to Hogsmeade!" Alice said happily. "Whoops," the grin slid off her face and she tapped her parchment muttering the spell to get the ink she had just spilled off.
"A good day for Lily then," Amy said, slumping down into a chair. "Wish I could say the same for me."
"You asked James out and he said no?" Lily asked putting away her homework.
Amy shook her head. "I never got the chance too. I'll try again tomorrow. It's so hard getting him alone. He's always hanging out with Remus, Sirius, and Peter. I'm not going to be able to sleep until Halloween! I'll be nervous until I ask him."
"Want to head back to the common room," Alice suggested.
The other two nodded, getting up from the table.
"Oh," Lily turned to Alice suddenly remembering something, "Did you give that note to Bridget yet?"
"Lily that was a few weeks ago, of course I -" she dove into her bag. "Oh wait, here it is..." she pulled out the letter looking slightly abashed.
"I'll go look for her," Lily volunteered, snatching the letter from Alice's grip before she could object. "And I promise I won't look inside it," she added, noticing Alice's look of worry.
"Well she's probably in the common room," Amy put in. "That's where we're heading anyway right?"
"Good point Amy," Alice took the letter back. "We can all take it to her together."
Lily glared at Amy, "Ya, great idea."
In turned out Bridget was in the common room, sitting infront of the fireplace, hypnotized by the flames.
She broke out of her trance as the three girls approached her. "Oh hello."
"Here, you got some mail," Alice handed her the letter. "Sorry, it came a few weeks ago, but I forgot to give it to you."
Bridget took the letter and checked the address; she suddenly looked alarmed. "You - you didn't read it did you?"
Alice shook her head. "No, like I said before, I forgot I even had it."
"Oh, ok. Thanks," Bridget said just before tossing it the letter into the fireplace.
Lily gave a little shriek of surprise, "You didn't even open it!"
Bridget looked up at her. "It was nothing important. An add for witch weekly."
"Course it was," Lily said quickly pulling her face into one she hoped was fully convinced one.
Alice looked happy, "So it didn't matter that I gave it to you a few weeks late!"
"Yup," Bridget grinned, though Lily noticed it was a bit forced.
"Alright..." Amy looked around at her friends nervously, for she, like Lily had noticed something peculiar as well. "So...um...Lily, come to the dorm with me...I - er - want your opinion on a dress robe I bought."
Lily could tell from the look Amy was giving her that she wanted to talk about something a lot more important than a new dress robe.
She nodded, giving Amy the same look, and the too of them clambered up the stairs towards their dorm, leaving Alice and Bridget by the fire.
"She's hiding something!" Amy practically yelled the moment she hadcollapsed on her bed.
"Of course she is!" Lily sat down next to her. "I had a chance to read what was in that letter! So close to maybe solving this mystery once and for all!"
"Keep your voice down!" Amy hissed, "You want the whole common room to hear you!"
"Sorry!" Lily hissed back, "But this is starting to drive me crazy. First she starts acting normal like nothing happened and then she suddenly starts snapping."
"And now she starting acting normal for a few weeks then this letter comes and I think its going to start up again. Did you happen to see the address the letter?"
Lily shook her head. "Maybe this will be it though. It'll all be over."
Amy, who was in the process of removing her sneakers looked back up at Lily, "No. I bet whoever sent her the letter wants her to reply which, of course, she's not going to do because she refused to read the letter." She flung her shoes aside. "We'll need a plan."
"What?"
"A plan. Come on Evans, we've got another mystery to solve and not another one of those bogus mysteries like is Professor Flitwick reallyone ofSanta's houseelves or is Remus Lupin really a werewolf."
"You're right," Lily said ignoring the last comment. "We've got a mystery on our hands."
"Should we tell Alice?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. Do you think she'd tell Bridget what we're up to?"
"Probably...Hey keep your big boots off my bed please!"
"Sorry," Lily hastily put her feet on the ground. "But how do we even solve this thing. Bridget will quickly become wise to us if we start stalking her."
"We just have to intercept all of her mail from now on."
Lily stared at Amy, hoping she wasn't serious. "You're kidding right, because its not that easy. For one thing, she doesn't have an owl so it would be impossible to tell which one is the one to intercept, second of all we'd need a broom to catch up to the owl and neither of us knows how to fly really well."
"Hmm, you're right..." the smile slid off of Amy's face and she stayed silent in thought for a few minutes. Then her face brightened up. "Those are all very good points Lily. It's true, neither of us can fly a broom really well and we don't know how to stalk anyone without them being suspicious. I speak of course of the disastrous Flitwick haunting business in our second year, but moving on. We may not be able to do any of those things, but I know who can."
"Oh no," Lily said knowing what was coming. "Please, no. No I'm begging you. Don't - "
xxx
"Yes, we can help you," Sirius Blackdrawled leaning back into his chair, a smug grin plastered on his face.
"You did the right thing by telling us," James said looking amused.
"Alright so your basic package is going to call for ten galleons," Sirius continued. "But seeing is how its you two, we'll need it in advance."
"You're charging us?" Lily asked incredulously.
"Well sure," said Sirius. "We need to support ourselves somehow. Do we have deal or not?"
Amy turned to Lily, "Come on, its only five galleons each. We can spare it."
"But - "
"Do you want to get to the bottom of this or not?"
"We can do it ourselves!" Lily whispered. "And don't think I don't know what this is about."
"We can't do it ourselves. Come on Lily please!"
Lily exhaled, irritated, but gave in anyway. She turned in her seat to face the two boys, glaring at James. This was all his fault. "Alright fine! I give up!"
"Great," said James standing up. "That settles that. We can start as early as tomorrow."
"Deal!" Amy jumped up and shook his hand eagerly. "We can go get the money now. Come on Lily!"
Lily grudgingly stood up and followed Amy back towards their dormitory. "You owe me for this."
"Well what if we do find out what's going on with Bridget?" Amy asked opening the door to their room. "Then will everything be forgiven?"
"Fine," Lily stepped over to her trunk. "I guess the only other choice would be to do it ourselves and we'd get caught. Plus I don't think Bridget will be too happyif she found out what we're up too."
"Got the money? Alright, let's head back down."
"We're horrible friends," Lily said suddenly.
"Lily remember how bitchy Bridget was being to you?" Amy told her. "We just want to help her."
"By unleashing James and Sirius on her?"
"Hey I wouldn't mind."
Lily punched her playfully on the arm. "And you're going to owe me five galleons if this doesn't work out."
"Fine, but it will. Trust me. These guys always seem to know what they're doing."
"I'll admit that," Lily cast an weary eye at Alice and Bridget who were chatting by the fire. Bridget certainly didn't look too happy. Her eyes were still staring at the flames, the look on her face made it seem as if she was ordering them to destroy all evidence of the letter.
"She looks a bit angry wouldn't you say?"
"I was just thinking that," Lily replied, tearing her gaze back to Amy.
"Well here you are," Amy handed Sirius and James the money.
"Just make sure you're not caught," Lily said as Sirius took the gold from her hands.
"Don't worry about a thing, Evans," James assured her. "We know what we're doing."
"So how many other people have you been stalking?"
"No one lately," Sirius said, counting the galleons. "But we have ways of not being seen. We'll try and solve this mystery of yours as soon as possible. And I'm glad the head girl changed her mind about the rules."
Lily glared at him. "I'm going to pretend this conversation didn't happen and I can only hope you will do the same."
"It's only illegal if you get caught," Amy put in.
"Don't sweat it. We'll be careful. James will do all of the flying, right?" he turned to his best friend.
"Got you covered," James assured.
"And I'll do most of the sneaking around," Sirius said.
"We'll report any strange things to you as fast as we can," said James.
"All of this seems to be in order," Sirius slipped the money into his bag which he then slung over his shoulder. "For an extra five galleons we can find out the owner of that cup you showed us."
"Five galleons?" It was Amy who spoke this time. "No forget it Black. This is all we want for now." She turned to Lily, "Right?"
"Right," said Lily. "I can solve that on my own. All it really requires is some lost posters and - "
"Shush Lily."
"We ought to leave it at this," James said looking in the direction of Bridget. "Before we're seen together.
"Yes, Bridget will definitely be suspicious of us then," Lily agreed. "No matter how good your stalking skills are, she'd be on to us."
"Let's call the meeting to a close," Amy said. "Just mention anything out of the ordinary on her if you find anything at all. So good luck."
"Pleasure talking to you two again," Sirius winked and he and James strode off in the direction of the boys dormitories.
"Glad being head girl didn't screw you up too much," Amy said, looking pleased. "I was worried it would make you think you'd have to start behaving or something."
Lily laughed. "Come on. I still have some homework to do."
xxx
Lily went to bed that night feeling both guilty and relieved. Guilty at the fact she was going behind Bridget's back, and relieved at the fact she might have this mystery solved soon.
It didn't take her long to fall asleep, but when she did, she fell into a nightmare. It started like the dream she had had a few weeks back. They one where she was walking on a narrow dirt road somewhere out in space. But this time the cup was huge and was blocking her path.
She tried to move around it, but that turned into an impossible task. Lily knew she had to keep moving on the path though. Climbing over or around it wouldn't work. She was stuck. The cup then opened up as a large mouth complete with dripping fangs. Lily tried to run in the opposite direction, but found she couldn't move very fast.
She was running in slow motion, desperately trying to flee from the cup.
"No, stop!" she cried, ceasing running and turning to face the goblet. "Leave me alone." And she crouched into a ball as the cup beared down upon her, getting ready to engulf her. Eagerly awaiting the moment where it could enjoy the tender feel of sinking its teeth in her flesh but then -
Lily woke up suddenly, covered in sweat and panting heavily, not daring to movie a muscle. Not again, she thought, miserably, rolling onto her side. And after a while of listening to the soft snores of Alice, she closed her eyes, determined to fall back into a sleep devoid of all cups.