Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize; J K Rowling does.
Ch.23: Duet: Practice
"Shut the door Rudolphus!" a high pitched whisper exclaimed. A tall lanky looking boy shut the door quickly and returned to the group.
"Alright you all heard what Pierce wants us to do, we just have to think of a way to get both Potter and that Mud Blood alone." The person whispered.
"Why are we whispering Bella, none's here, plus we silenced the room." The tall greasy haired Severus Snape asked rolling his eyes in annoyance of her voice.
"Shut up Snape." Bella said in a normal tone.
"Look we have to think, we need to get them alone. I'm pretty sure I can manage to get Evans alone, but Potter will be tricky."
"Yeah, Because of your stupid cousin Sirius." Rudolphus piped in.
"Uh, whatever. We won't be able to get him if they are around him." Bella clarified.
"Perhaps we can use someone, someone who knows them well."
"Like who?" Lestrange (Rudolphus) asked.
"Pettigrew" Snape sneered with an evil grin.
"Perfect." Bella lipped.
"How will we get him alone?" Severus asked realizing he didn't know how.
"I know, he is horrible in potions, offer to tutor him." Bella suggested.
"Are you serious?" Severus asked with surprised look.
"Yes, its perfect, Slughorn will say yes of course, you have the highest potions grade for the Slytherins and with lily being ill Potter and her won't be able to do it and I doubt Slughorn will want Lupin to do it because, well because you're a better student than he is." Bella explained.
"Fine, I'll talk to Slughorn, when does, Pierce want Potter and Mud Blood?" he asked.
"He's giving us two weeks, by that time he says they hope the Potters will be eliminated."
"What about the Mud Blood?" Lestrange asked turning to Bella.
"What about her, her to in two weeks."
"No I mean, well I heard they're planning to eliminate her parents as well, at least that's what I heard." He said
"Well then they both will be in the same position won't they?" She asked and walked out. The other two followed.
Morning soon arrived. Lily woke up, it was Sunday.
"Ben" she thought. He would be arriving that afternoon. Lily got up and dressed. She changed into a pair of jeans, a well fitted green sweater and a pair of brown chucks (I like Chucks, I have a pair, they're brown- ha :)
She headed downstairs and saw everyone gathered around.
"Morning Lily." Emily greeted cheerfully. She was sitting next to Remus on the couch.
'Hey." She responded, she walked over and sat next to James.
"Are we going down to breakfast now?" Sirius asked grabbing at his stomach.
"Sure, are you hungry Lily?" James asked.
"Yeah I could eat." Lily said and they all walked out of the common room and went down stairs.
They began to eat and talk.
"So what are your plans today Lily?" Alicia asked taking a spoon full of yogurt.
"Um well I'm free to do anything up until four o'clock, because Ben is coming to do some work."
"Cool, will you be in the Library?"
"No Dumbledore is giving us an empty class room to work because we will be trying out different potions and stuff."
Suddenly a flock of Owls flew from the rafts of the Great hall, some carrying Black letters. Everyone starred up and looked at the ones in black, they fell to several students at the Slytherin table and a few onto the Gryffindor. Lily got up to go see the Gryffindor students.
Lily walked up to a teary eyed girl of about fourteen. The girl opened the letter.
"It's me dad," she whispered.
Lily comforted her and said everything would be okay. Lily walked back farther down the table to where the group was sitting.
"Who was it?" Sirius asked gently.
"Amanda MacDane, it was her father."
Lily sat back down and noticed a brown owl sitting in front of her plate. Tied to its leg were two notes. She grabbed one of them, it was a howler. Carefully Lily began t o open it. It started to spark and it began to yell.
"You are nothing but a stupid little Mud Blood who doesn't know shit about me. Stay the hell away from me you filthy little wanker!" the letter shouted. Everyone around her stopped eating to watch, even the Slytherins looked over. The letter burned a vibrant black and gold Flame with the letters B E N passing through it.
Lily stunned just sat there. She couldn't believe he had sent that, as a howler! Lily began to think of reasons he might have had in order to do this. She looked up and grabbed the next letter. She tore it open it read.
Dear Lily,
Hopefully you opened the howler first. I don't mean anything that was said sincerely. I apologize, you see I had to prove my loyalty to you know who and to George the guy you beat up, which by the way was the most wicked thing I think I have ever seen you do! I'll see you a little bit later. Oh and please tell your mates, especially James that I didn't mean anything, I'm in no mood or physical shape to put up with any fights today, Also I'm bringing some equipment Colombian Exchange put together, should be interesting, bye.
Sincerely,
Prince Charming.
Lily smiled at the letter. By this time everyone who had looked at the howler had turned back to their meals except for the Slytherins who were still laughing. Lily looked up and glared.
"What does the letter say?" Emily asked.
"It's from Ben; I'll tell you when we get back in the common room."
Breakfast soon ended and they all headed up stairs. They entered the room.
"So what did he say, I'll kill him if he meant what he said." Alicia warned.
"Don't worry you won't have to. The howler was just to show his loyalty to his friends, they found out I was a muggle born witch the other day, plus to show his loyalty to the DE's." Lily explained.
"Oh is that all he said?"
"He is bringing over some new gadgets and weapons for me to se, that's all. Where did Peter go?" Lily asked looking around and realizing Peter was nowhere to be seen. Every one looked around.
"I don't know he was just right behind us."
-In the Dungeons-
"Hello Peter." A low tone voice sneered.
"Oh Hello Snape, is there something you wanted?" Peter said nervously.
"Well I was wondering if you needed any help with potions, you see I need some point for my grade due to some assignments I couldn't fulfill and Slughorn said I could tutor someone to gain them."
"Why could . . ."
"That's none of your concern Pettigrew. If you want it I'm offering."
"Well I do need help; I was going to ask Sirius or James . . ."
"Don't ask them they're stupid prats who don't know anything, plus why would they care about you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well just look at them, Black and Potter always together with Lupin at their side strutting the castle as if they own the place, while you are there straggling along. Do you want to be a straggler all your life Pettigrew?" Severus asked in a stern tone.
"Well, uh, uh, no I don't, but they're my friends." He said defensively.
"Peter if they really were your friends they would treat you better, with more respect. I see how black treats you, as if you're stupid. But you know what your not."
Pettigrew thought about this for a moment.
"You know what you're right; they do treat me like dirt. But still they are my friends I look up to them."
"Why look up to them if the look down on you? Look why don't I start tutoring you for potions and you can hang with us, us meaning Bella, Rudolphus and I for a while, we certainly won't treat you like dirt. Plus Bella can help you with your other classes if needed." Severus said in a casual and friendly tone.
"Well I'll think about it." He replied.
"Don't think too long, many other students need tutoring and I' am only one man, I can only take one student." He said and walked away leaving Peter with his thoughts.
The day past quite quickly to Lily's surprise for it was already 4 o'clock. Lily sat in the Common room waiting for Ben. James and the others were also there, Peter had returned from his little chat with Severus.
Lily looked down at her watch and saw it was 4:05.
"He should be here, he's never late." She said to herself. Suddenly they heard a huge crash coming from the portal wall. Lily got up quickly and ran to the door. She opened it and found Ben sprawled out on the floor on top of large boxes.
"Ben." Lily said as she helped him up.
"Thanks." He said brushing off his jacket and picking up one of the boxes. He looked up at lily,
"Oh my gosh what happened?" Lily exclaimed. Ben looked up at her sporting a black eye and a bruised cheek.
"Oh nothing got into a bit of a row that's all." He said brushing it off.
"I didn't have much time to visit the nurse before I came here. I was taking a test." He said as he made his way to the common room. He settled the huge boxes with a loud thud onto the floor. The group stood up. Ben looked up.
"Hello, I don't believe we've met formally, I'm Ben Croft." He introduced himself.
Lily soon followed with two more trunks.
"Gosh, these are heavy what did Ledford give you, the whole arsenal?" She exclaimed using most of her strength, which she had a lot of, to carry the boxes into the room.
"Oh here I'll get that." Ben said as he bent down to grab one of the boxes from Lily's hand.
They were set down with another thud.
"Well uh guys this is Ben, Ben this is James, Sirius, Remus, Alicia, Emily and Peter. Lily said pointing to all of them.
"It's nice to meet all of you." He said with a smile.
"I apologize if I haven't shown the best behavior around you all." He said. He turned back to lily.
"Are we working here?" he asked
"Uh no, we will be working downstairs, in an empty class room." Lily replied.
"Alright, well it was nice meeting all of you." Ben pulled out his wand and levitated the two boxes and began to walk out.
"I'll see you guys later." She said. She followed Ben out of the room. They soon arrived at the room. Ben set the boxes on the side table and began to open them.
"Alright I brought along some equipment which Ledford wanted us to try."
"Such as?" Lily asked coming over.
"Uh well he made some new jewelry and new accessories, and he brought us two knew gun from the shop which have some type of magic in them, here." Ben handed her one of the guns.
"It's light." Lily commented.
"Yeah, but he failed to mention what type of magic was stored. It doesn't use bullets, instead it shoots numerous hexes, but I'm not sure which ones. Here why don't you shoot me and I can put the vest on."
"Okay are you sure, can the vest protect you from the unforgivable curses?" she asked warily.
"It isn't capable of doing Avada kedavra, but it is capable of Cruciatus and Imperius. So we'll see."
Lily lifted the gun and steadied her hand. She shot once a flash of blue light came out the barrel (I don't think that's the right term, oh well I mean the end of the gun)
Ben's body locked up slightly but we released. He got up carefully. Lily ran over.
"I think that was Petrificus totalus" Lily said
"I think so too. We can ask Ledford for the rest later."
Lily got up and put the gun away. For the next hour they worked on case files Ben had retrieved from MI-5's data base.
"Alright enough of this grueling work, I brought the list of ingredients needed for the potion." He said.
"Great actually Dumbledore said he may be able to get us some of theses." She responded looking down at the list. There was a slight pause.
"So are you going to tell me who nailed you with their right hook?" Lily asked turning towards Ben.
"Uh, it was George; I must say you made quite an impression on the students who saw what you did to him. You were really fast."
"Oh well, reflexes I guess, I've been hit around too many times not to know what to do." Lily said folding the list and putting it into her bag.
"Lily there's something I should tell you." Ben began. Lily looked towards him.
"What is it?" she asked.
"There is a rumor going about amongst the DE's."
"And what rumor would that be?" Lily asked worriedly
"Rumor has it that the DE's are in search of James's Parents and him which you know, but in order to get to them they have to get to someone he cares about dearly."
"Sirius?" Lily questioned.
"No Lily, you." He whispered.
Lily's eyes widened.
"Me?"
"Yes and your parents, Lily, watch your back especially when you're around the Slytherins. Who knows what they're thinking." Ben warned tensely.
"Thanks you. I'll see you at work in a couple of days, or maybe sooner depending if you know who calls." Lily said. Ben and her got up and left levitating the boxes in front of them.
Lily headed back to the dorm. James was sitting on the couch reading a Quidditch magazine. He saw Lily walk through the door. He got up and ran to Lily quickly and groped her in to a giant hug. Lily was a bit surprised at his quick grab and strength of it. It worried her.
"James, are you all right?" she asked James didn't respond, he just held onto her.
"James?" she asked once more
"Fine, how did it go?" asked his voice was muffled by Lily's fiery red locks.
"It was fine are you okay?" she asked pulling away from him.
"Yeah." He said smiling.
"Where are the others?'
"Uh Sirius and Alicia went to have some alone time, Remus and Emily are practicing for the show in the shack and Peter went to see Slughorn about something, something about tutoring."
"Oh okay wow we should get practicing on our piece, it is just a little more than a month away." Lily said.
"Okay why not start now?" He suggested. He pulled lily over to the sitting area.
"Remus left us the lyrics, we could run through them." He suggested.
"Okay." James handed lily a copy of the lyrics. They began.
James: "Love is a many splendid thing, love lift us up where we belong all you need is love." James sang in a high tune
Lily: "Please, don't start that again."
James: "All you need is love"
Lily: "A girl as got to eat"
James: "All you need is love"
Lily: "She'll end up on the streets" Lily said standing up, putting her acting skills into play. James did the same. He stood up dramatically.
James: "All you need is love"
Lily folded her arms and said "Love is just a game."
James leapt forward and belted out:
"I was made for loving you baby and you were made for loving me!"
Lily then sang: "The only way of loving me baby is to pay a lovely fee."
James: "Just one night, give me just one night."
Lily: "There's no way cause you can't pay."
James: "In the name of love, one night in the name of love."
Lily turned sharply to James and said "You crazy fool I won't give into you." James leapt forward and grabbed her arm gently and gently pulling her chin to face him and said "Don't . . . leave me this way I can't survive with out your sweet love oh baby don't leave me this way" . . . .
Lily and James finished the read through/singing/ acting of the lyrics.
"Well I think we sound alright, hopefully." Lily said as she set down the sheet of paper on the table.
"Yeah I think so to."
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