Mélange

Disclaimer: This is getting rather tedious. I don't own the Harry Potter canon stuff, okay?

Hello all!
Now that the document manager thing is working and I have internet access, here is the chapter. It's not one that I like. If I have time or I reach another block, this will be rework. So please do not hate me for this rushed update... although that is a bit oxymoronic since it's been awhile since the last chapter.

Read on...

Chapter Twelve

The two hours Irena had allotted for Lily to show up and leaveflew by, along with the first hour of the photo shoot. Lily had no breather between arriving at the target destination and getting swept up by her former modeling agent. With all the rush, they reached the place of the shoot an hour and a half early. Instead of allowing Lily to rest and catch her breath since she was shoved into the car in only a few seconds after she had popped to the front door, Irena fed Lily to the Dior representatives, who had a knack for expressing perfectionism through their gazes. Now Lily sat in front of a makeup mirror with at least five makeup artists and stylists fluttering around her trying to find "the look".

"Okay! Time to get dressed!" a woman with a pencil attached behind her ear declared, causing all the stylists and make up artists to flutter off getting their equipment ready. "Come on Miss Evans, the designers are waiting for you."

Lily followed the woman down the hall an up the elevator to a floor dedicated to the innovators of fashion. "We need to get you fitted for the clothes since this is a rushed appointment. The photographer will be here soon too."

Once more, people circled Lily as though she was a piece of clay that needed to be decorated and sculpted so the dress would look the best on her. After standing for hours and each piece of the spring collection was exhausted, Lily was given a lunch break in which she could eat something to postpone her hunger.

The moment she returned, she was lead back to the makeup room to get her face powdered and colored while stylists brushed, curled, and twisted her hair in a style that would satisfy the photographer, the make up artists, the fashion designers, and the hair stylists.

"Okay, today is the casual shoot, so you are supposed to look like a mix of Sunday's best with little school girl," the head stylist explained. "Since some of the casual clothes look like a day at the fair, we can't do braids for you. What do you think?" Lily stared at her image in the mirror, trying to help out the stressed stylist. Apparently the change in models was a major set back for Dior's photo shoot, and no one was very ready to handle the emergency situation.

With all the arms crossed in front of her face trying to dab foundation, eye shadow, lipstick, and certain hands that were still taking care of her hair, Lily couldn't tell what she looked like.

"Um, how about we leave my hair down. It's a lot of hair and we are on a tight schedule." The stylist seemed happy about what she said and ordered heated curlers to be placed for a wavy effect for a side part. To Lily's surprise, someone produced a simple but elaborate lily pin to be placed in her hair.

The same woman with the pencil behind her ear scattered the artists again when she announced the photographer was ready.

"He's Antonio Caraci," she explained. "The best of the younger generation of fashion photographers. He is a rather eccentric man that is en amor with nature, so you will be taking the pictures in the back yard. We had to buy a large collection of plants in the arboretum to satisfy the needs of Mr. Caraci."

Lily nodded with a small smile. Unless there were two Antonio Caracis, her photographer this time was the first man that ever took a picture of her, at least for a fashion shoot. She met Antonio when he had an internship for Debenhams [1] during her first photo shoot. Since the professional photographer was rather scary, Lily had winced whenever she was supposed to smile. Being the assistant, Antonio had to make her smile so he had Lily act silly and took silly pictures to put her at ease.

"Oh my, is that my little Lily?" Antonio greeted once Lily stepped in front of the camera and studio lights in the first of a series of dresses. Needless to say, having a familiar face at the photo shoot sharing funny stories made the time go quicker. During each change of clothes, Antonio interrogated Lily on her life, school, boyfriends, and also her skills on observation.

"Do you remember what I told you, Little Lily?" the photographer asked when she was dressed in a seemingly washed out pastel pink dress. The two ribbons used to tie her hair into wavy pigtails made her feel as though she was only three. Lily smiled and nodded, taking comfort in the sense of déjà vu.

"To be observant is to be safe and ultimately happy. Beauty is everywhere, as with lies and deceit. One must know the difference between the two to live life to the fullest possible," Lily paraphrased. It was a philosophy that stayed with her ever since she heard it from Antonio when she was eight years old.

"Good, good," Antonio muttered before waving Lily off.

After a day of hair-tugging, full-time smiles, powder getting in her eyes, and all around of laughable time, Lily was cranky when she at home. The stack of newspapers and newsmagazines she promised herself that she would read was still 18 inches high. With the relatives poring into the Evans household for Petunia's upcoming wedding and the New Years, Lily wanted to be antisocial. She wanted to lock herself in her room whenever she wasn't modeling and wait for the portkey to be activated so she could go back to her more undistinguished life as Lily Evans, a Ravenclaw prefect; however, even that little comfort might disappear with the Dior photo shoot and being a representative in the conference. Of course, she had survived the prefect sale and remained undistinguished, she might be able to side step distinction if she participated the youth version of the ICW. Then again, she would be stuck with hiding the Dior event. How was she supposed to do that?

Home life was awful. Petunia was back and ordering everyone around about. When she saw Lily, the atmosphere suffered severe freeze and heat shock. Petunia's icy glared bounced off Lily's apathetic aura. She was tired from portkeying and smiling and acting social. All Lily wanted to do was to eat and sleep. Home was supposed to give her comfort. Having to deal with Petunia's petulance was worse than having to deal with Potter and standoffish people of the ministry.

The scowl that was gradually becoming discernable made a debut when relatives started fussing about Lily's renewed interest in modeling. After fifteen minutes of listening to her relatives give her tips on how to stay young so she could survive in the harsh world of beauty, Lily started to frown and earned a scolding nudge from her mother when she brought dessert to the table.

"Oh I don't think Lily will be modeling for that long," Petunia added with a sneer. "After all, she is too short. I mean, aren't those modeling at least 172 centimeters? Lily is definitely a bit off."

Once Petunia started to actively participate in conversation, the relatives started focusing more attention on her upcoming wedding. For once, Lily happily accepted her sister's barb to get out of the limelight.

Using the excuse that she was tired from traveling and late nights from studying for her finals, Lily locked herself in her room after the family bonding time that always followed the holiday dinners. Instead of resting like what her family expected she was doing, Lily took out the camera James gave her and started taking pictures of her neighborhood through her window. The tree that was in front of her window had always been annoying, but since she wanted an unobstructed view of the neighborhood, it was a perfect limb to climb on…

CRACK!

Lily felt herself fall to the ground with a thump.

She looked around and noticed that the branch didn't break. It was the neighbor's cat that broke something in its playground – the neighbor's yard – that made the noise.

"Lily?" her great-aunt Lydia yelped, opening the sliding doors with a slam. "What are you doing out here?" Lily blushed and looked up at the tree. How was she supposed to explain what she wanted to do without the most suspicious relative of the family to misinterpret it into something scandalous?

"I, um, well, you see," Lily stuttered, feeling her face become hotter and probably redder.

"You were trying to meet a boy, aren't you?" Lydia exclaimed with a dreamy look in her eyes. "I heard from your parents that you had to leave a ball for the Dior thing. Were you off visiting your date?"

Right, that's why I'm out in my pajamas trying to get to a northern part of the British Isles trying to meet my date… who happens to be James Potter whose magnetism to the heterosexual females and even some homosexual males brought him a lot of dance partners.

"Actually, you see, I was trying to take a picture of the city lights but the camera was obstructed by the tree so I leaned. Of course, being clumsy ol' me, I feel off," Lily finished with a series of innocent nodding, complete with doleful green eyes.

"Okay hon," Lydia replied, suddenly looking strict. "Get up to bed since you do have a photo shoot the next morning. Also, have you packed yet?"

The second day at Dior was more exhausting than the first. Since her deal with Dior was temporary, it was necessary to make sure her pictures had no glitches. Although it was only three in the afternoon when Lily changed back into her own clothes, Lily felt as though she had stayed up all night studying for a major exam. To make matters worse, her facial muscles were sore from having to keep her face smiling.

"Thanks Mum and Dad!" Lily smiled and waved goodbye to her parents. Ouch, it even hurts to talk. I should go steal local anesthesia from the dentist's office. I would opt for looking like a chipmunk than to feel pain by just doing things a normal person would do like talking!

"Are you sure you can stay by yourself? I mean this is New Years Eve and it's late at night," her mother crooned. "We can stay with you until you get zapped away." Lily shook her head persistently.

"You realize that all our relatives will wonder why you didn't return so soon?" Lily pointed out.

"You realize that they will complain about you not being with family for New Years Eve?" her father retorted. "But alas, my little girl is growing older. Be good okay?"

Lily nodded and watched her parents leave. She found a secluded corner to wait until her portkey's activation. After waiting for two minutes, the boredom made fatigue more prominent. After spending most of the night before packing and sleeping restlessly, Lily wanted to sit down and take a nap.

Just as her eyelids started to droop, the tugging sensation of portkey woke Lily up. By the time she cleared her mind, she found herself at her brightly lit room at the inn. Everything was in the same place and condition when she left. On her small writing desk, Lily noticed a small piece of parchment.

"Hello Lily! Welcome back," the note started. "The New Years Eve night's ball will be held in the amphitheater by the east of the gardens. I'm not sure if you are good with reading the directions via the stars but if you walk straight upon entering the garden, you will walk into the amphitheater after a few minutes. I'll meet you around the time you portkey back. James."

Lily smiled at the thoughtfulness of the Gryffindor and found he seemed so much like a Hufflepuff when he wasn't in the pretentious environment of school.

Since James said he would wait for her around five o'clock, Lily hurriedly dressed and primed up before dashing out the door so her friend-as-date wouldn't be in the cold waiting for her too long. Even if she was hesitant about being James Potter's date, she should be polite. Besides, the fact that James took extensive length to help her out – making a portkey within minutes and giving her instructions about the ball – Lily should behave like a good date, like being on time.

Lily opened her closet to find the forest green dress robe that was suitable for the event. It wasn't completely with the young generation's trend so the formality of the outfit was appropriate. Perhaps the best feature about the dress was the empire waist that made her seemed formless and curvaceous. The outer layer light velvet so it followed her movements in a delayed fashion. The sleeves were surprisingly unlike ordinary robe sleeves in that instead of being so large, the sleeves were tight on her entire length of the arm and flared out slightly starting at her wrist.

Fatigue and exhaustion dissipated as Lily saw the faint glow of the amphitheater. Perhaps there would be a fireworks show since the festivities were held outside. The thought of seeing magically conjured fireworks reminded Lily to bring her camera, an item that was rapidly becoming her best friend. Feeling embarrassed about running out of inn only to go back, Lily preoccupied herself with making faces at her own lack of planning.

When she exited her room to get to Lily noticed voices in the halls. Curious, she followed her ears' sense of direction and walked towards the garden. The makers of noise were walking towards the garden. By the time she reached the garden, everything looked normal. There wasn't a sign of people except the footprints from the ball participants walking to the amphitheater.

"We meet!" an unfamiliar voice declared. The comment and tone of voice caused Lily to shudder. Somehow, the situation reminded her too much of muggle movies where ominous music would be play about then.

"Who are you?"

There was a rustle of leaves. "I doubt you would still be conscious if we told you." Somehow the comment made Lily want to laugh. It was too surreal. She was in a middle of a garden where civilization was somewhere beyond trees.

"Well, you wouldn't know for sure if you try to tell me," Lily retorted. From being unconscious to dead or being cursed then killed, she preferred to be unconscious. "So, who are you?" Instead of a verbal response, the there were plants rustling. For a moment, Lily paused and but as the moving of the leaves shifted to a place under the moonlight. Primal predatory and prey sense alerted, Lily made her way into the bushes to trying to follow whoever initiated the startling cheesy dark wizard talk.

She followed the trail of squished foliage. As the sound of festivities grew louder, Lily's heart pounded harder and she was choked by fear. The threats were real taunts of wizards against the ministry. The fact that these people were walking towards the officials among plants and were invisible to Lily's vision merely confirmed that feeling of dread.

In her moment of uncertainly, something poked into her back. It was almost like a rehearsed decision. Or perhaps it was her sense of drama in time of distress. Lily jumped at the feel of the wand and screamed for her life.

"Expelliarmus!" she shouted once she landed. When the spell landed on the invisible cloaks that covered the intruders, Lily realized the size of the group. In that moment of paralysis, Lily found her self the target of the wizards wands. She never witnessed a duel before let along participate in one. At the same moment the wands were directed at the young Ravenclaw prefect, fireworks started. Was it already midnight? was the fleeting question as Lily used the slight shock to her advantage. She dashed behind a large tree hoping the wizards would be busy staring at lights in the sky near them rather than to keep an eyes on her.

"Crucio!" one of the wizard hissed. Oopsy, they did see me, Lily thought with a wince and jumped behind a new bush. Her former trees had a large scorch mark that slit the plant in half. Other wizards tried the curses as well, and each time, Lily would hide behind a new plant. If she weren't in danger, she would have felt sorry for the damage the spells caused on the plants. Soon, her small semicircle opposing her attackers reminded her of a grave yard where the bushes only had stumps and dried branches.

"Oculus Cæcus! [2]" multiple wizards shouted while Lily's first attacker continued to throw the Cruciatus curse at her.

Lily's last thoughts were surprise. Of all the things that had to happen to her, she felt her first Unforgivable Curse. Certainly she read about the pain the Cruciatus curse would induce, but the pain was unbearable; the book definitely was right about the indescribable pain.

She wasn't sure when she started screaming. Maybe her moans became louder as the curse continued, but Lily felt tears collect in her eyes as she tried to overcome the discomfort as one would for a common stomachache. However, the curse penetrated into her brain. Each strand of nerves pulsated the stinging cool heat of the Cruciatus curse. Oddly, the pain felt like a severe dose of the pins and needles sensation when one sat on her leg for too long.

Amidst her subconscious rambling as she felt other curses hit her in her debilitated state, Lily heard enraged cries from more people. Hopefully, the rage was from the partygoers that realized danger instead of instead of? I'm a little confused, and your readers may be as well. a new group of dark wizards.

The pain from the Cruciatus curse faded to a minor tingling. From afar, Lily heard someone faintly call her name. The voice sounded detached, as though it was whispering to her from three leagues away.

Waves of consciousness flooded her senses, with each time becoming stronger. Lily still felt exhausted, so she decided to rest everyt muscle in her body while her brain started to sort out what had happened. She remembered the sinking feeling that accompanied portkeys, her curiosity at strange voices, and facing her first magical duel. Her fingers patted the mattress she was resting on. The softness of the bed and the comforter meant she wasn't a prisoner. Opening her eyes, Lily could only see darkness. It must still be dark. After all, daylight in the winter season usually started around eight in the morning. Since the inn was further north – assuming she was resting on a bed in the inn – the sun would rise even later.

"How is he?" Lily heard someone ask. The sound came from her right side. Someone must have gotten hurt in the ordeal with dark wizards.

"He is fine. The spell didn't cause too much damage since it was placed on him for too long. The only serious injuries are the bruises from crashing onto the ground." There was a small pause. "The mediwitch said he should wake up soon. The sleeping potion only lasts two hours."

A shuffle of clothing and a sigh. "Well, he definitely is a tough one. All those Quidditch accidents actually did some good; it build up his tolerance to physical abuse." More silence and then a loud pause. Lily nearly jumped from her bed.

"Let me in!" She recognized the voice as Sirius's. "He is my best friend you know! I should be in there with his family since I am sort of part of it." The creaking sound of doors opening followed by a train of footsteps alerted Lily of more visitors.

"James!" Sirius called clearly since the doors no longer muffled his voice. Lily's eyes widened in surprise and she cursed at the darkness in the room. Why was James next to her recuperating?

"Shush Sirius," Remus's gentle tone chastised. "He's resting."

Remus? Am I still at the inn? What had happened, exactly? Lily wondered, growing more desperate to speak with someone.

"He doesn't look as beat up as the news made it sound," Peter's voice observed with a hint of relief. "I was expecting blood, bruises, broken bones, and missing limbs or something."

"You know, the medical group might have fixed him before we got here you know," Lily heard Sirius's sarcastic cry.

"Don't worry Peter," Antonia's wry tone correct. Lily heard the soft sound of hands smacking something hard. "The media always exaggerates to build sensationalism."

"So this is the person that saved my daughter?" The soft remorseful comment made Lily jolt. The last time her father had sounded stoic was when her grandparents were killed on their missionary trip to South America. Her father was depressed for nearly a year after they received the news. Lily knew she wasn't dead and wasn't hurt severely. She could move and probably could talk too.

"Daddy?" she croaked out from her dry throat. When she didn't hear any footsteps coming towards her, she tried a little louder. Not wanting to wait, she tried to untangle herself from the blanket in the dark. Unfortunately, her legs were caught in the comforter and she lost her equilibrium.

"Daddy!" she shouted as she felt herself hit the ground with a thump. At least the thick comforters shielded her from getting any bruises.

"Miss Evans!" a stern voice lectured. "Don't move around. You'll only hurt yourself even more." She felt arms help her settle into her and fluff the pillows that would support her back. Someone then touched her face.

"Oh Lily," she heard her mother cry out. The soft hands on her face definitely were feminine and the scent wafting from it smelled like her mother's lilac lotion. If her mother was that close to her, why couldn't she see? Even in the darkest rooms, the pupils could adjust so that one could discern a faint outline of the surroundings.

"Why can't I see?" Lily asked. No one responded verbally. Only her mother's hands patted her cheeks. Oculus… eyes. Cæcus… blind. She was blind? "Am I blind?" Lily rephrased softly. Her mother's hands grew unsteady.

"I am blind," Lily mused. She wouldn't be able to see her family, her surroundings. She wouldn't be able to use her camera. Nor would she be able to read a book… unless books in the wizarding world were disabilities-friendly.

"Now, before you fret Miss Evans," someone whose voice Lily could not recognize answered, "we can't give you a definite answer until the test results return. It is possible your vision could be returned…" Lily stopped paying attention to the logistics of medical magic. There was a slight chance that she could regain her sight, and that was all she needed to keep her from sinking into the dread that would most definitely develop into depression.

footnotes

[1] I found this department store on the Internet… it's British and was started way back in the 1700s as a clothing store, according to its website.

[2] I looked this up on an Internet Latin dictionary. Literal translation: eyes blind. It's a literal translation so to those people that actually know Latin: don't hurt me as I got this off a source that I don't even know if it's qualified.

A/N: Well… I apologize profusely for the very long delay in this chapter due to a pointless economic camp that taught me nothing about economics but did aid me in realizing the rather helpless state of American education.

Seeing as there are many reviews for my revisions and changed chapters, I am going to just give a general THANK YOU! since I am running out of time too. Hopefully this chapter was satisfactory somewhat.

Omnifarious