It was bitterly cold and the rain lashed down in torrents. Lily clutched her cloak round her slight form and bowed her head against the blustery wind. Her face was flushed from the lashing rain and wind, but her mouth was set, horrendous weather or no, she was going to see this manuscript. In her pocket she had a signed letter from Dumbledore that, she hoped, would allow her to borrow the manuscript to try and decode it, or at the very least guarantee her a copy of it. She'd spoken to both her teachers about it and while both approving her project, they had cautioned her that it was likely to be difficult. She didn't mind though, in fact she quite enjoyed a challenge.
Half an hour later she reached the front door to the museum. As she reached up to knock on the closed door the wind snatched her cloak away from her other hand and it flapped out behind her, the silver clasps pulling at her neck. Lily grabbed the clasps away from her neck and hoped that the door would open very soon.
A crack of warm light shone out into the grey and wet outside and a wizened face peered round the door, "Can I help you?" the old man asked stiffly.
"Yes, may I come in?" she asked shivering.
He nodded and grudgingly moved aside to let her in. Lily walked in and closed the door behind her. Water dripped off her onto the floor, splashing in tiny pools. The man frowned at her appearance. Lily felt a brief flash of annoyance; it wasn't as if it was her fault.
She fished in her pockets with numb hands and drew out the piece of parchment, which Dumbledore had had the presence of mind to place a water resistance charm on. She handed it to the guard silently, her eyes wandering over the exhibits. He scanned it and eyed her suspiciously before telling her to wait while he spoke to the manager.
As he hobbled off Lily sighed and took of her cloak, grasping it firmly in both hands she wrung it out onto the floor. Then spotting a fire burning brightly on the other side of the room she walked quickly towards it, her footsteps ringing out on the hard marble beneath her feet.
In front of the fire Lily spread her cloak over the chair next to it and then moved herself to stand in front of it. She held her hands out to warm them in the heat given out by the crackling flames, remembering what happened last time she had tried to warm herself magically. If she was honest, she felt rather guilty about the whole thing. No one had been hurt, but people that hadn't done it had been blamed if not actually accused and punished for it. And then there was the next time they had Potions. Of course Okney had been perfectly irritable all lesson, but what had got her was the way some of the more timid members of the class and made a point of sitting at the back of the class. Sirius had moaned about having to sit at the front of the class when he and the rest of the Marauders had arrived just as the bell went.
Halfway through the lesson where she, Saffron and James had been busy making a potion she had had glanced round the room to look at the others. And what she remembered most of all was the nervous look Gemma Ramsey kept giving the fire under their cauldron.
She sighed and hoped that Gemma's 'pyrophobia' would disappear in time.
After about five minutes she felt a little warmer and began to grow impatient for the man's return. Turning to look around her she left the fire and walked into one of the rooms.
It mainly contained large pictures and diagrams spanning hundreds of centuries. But what interested her were the documents hung on walls next to translations or lying on cushions in glass stands. She thought it odd to have them presented like that, after all it wasn't as if they were as fragile as some of the other things in there.
She wandered round the room looking closely at the documents without translations hung helpfully next to them, wandering which was she was looking for. She stopped halfway down the room and looked up at a weathered piece of parchment about a foot or so long. There was nothing terribly remarkable about it except for the interesting border that ran round the edge. It stood out clearly to her from the yellowed background, a thin black line like a vine of some kind ran round all four sides and the same sign lay in each corner in four different colours: green, white, red and silver.
She felt a jolt of recognition as she realised she had seen them before. They were in exactly the same shape as the tattoo in the middle of her shoulder blades'. This must be it, she thought, oh I do hope that it'll be able to tell me something more about the Moonlit Ones!
The writing in the centre of the document was unlike anything she had ever seen either in real life or in a text book. While some of the writings stayed still all the time others came and went as if teasing its reader.
"Miss?"
She turned round to face a tall bespectacled woman. Her sharply angular face hardened by the tightly scraped back blond hair. Sharp blue eyes stared fixedly at her and a frown shadowed her small pursed lips.
"I see you have found the manuscript for yourself," she said, "I understand that you wish to try and translate it." Her face clearly showed blatant disbelief in Lily's ability to do any such thing.
Schooling her expression in one of the politest she could manage she nodded. "Yes."
"Well, ordinarily we wouldn't allow such a precious document out of the museum, but you have excellent character references from your headmaster, so you may have it on loan." She frowned her displeasure, "I hope I need not remind you that you must treat it with the utmost respect. And return it when you are done with it."
Lily nodded, "May I take it now?"
The woman sighed, "very well," she snapped.
She drew her wand and released the document from the security charms. Lily lifted the document down from the wall in its frame and tucked it under her arm carefully. The woman gave her another disapproving look before walking away, her high heeled shoes clacking along the floor.
Pausing to wrap her damp cloak around her again Lily walked to the door, trying to fit the frame under her cloak. No matter how hard she tried, there was just no way that she could keep it under there and keep it dry. Grumbling under her breath she took off her cloak and wrapped it round the frame. She held it tightly to her chest with one hand and wrenched the door open with the other.
The wind caused her to stagger back a few paces, the weather was just as bad if not worse than when she had come. It was beginning to get dark and it looked absolutely appalling outside. Sighing heavily again Lily clutched the frame tightly and ran out into the rain.
Fat droplets slid down her face and she blinked her eyes furiously to rid her long lashes of the water so she could see better. Her hair hung flat against her head, several long clumps of hair hung loose about her face. As she splashed through the large puddles the muddy water soaked her robes, water seeping up through the material and it began to cling to her cold skin underneath as she ran. Teeth chattering she focused on the thought of the warm castle that awaited her and splashed on up the hill towards the castle.
Panting, Lily pushed open the front doors and staggered into the Entrance Hall. The candles on the walls were lit and gave out a bright aura of light, warming the cold stone walls around her. Lily shook her head sending a light spray of water onto the floor like a sprinkler. Then she shivered violently.
'I'm dying for a cup of tea,' she thought to herself, 'in fact just anything hot.'
Still shivering she made her way towards the kitchen, she'd missed dinner. Glancing back over her shoulder she smiled, she was leaving a wet trail behind her, her overlong robe swept along the ground as she walked. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'it's not as if I can help it.' Reaching a picture of a fruit bowl she ticked the pear to reveal the entrance to the kitchens and descended the steps to where the eager house elves were waiting only too pleased to get her whatever she wanted.
They bustled around making her something to eat, a kettle boiled merrily on the stove and Lily sat on a chair next to the fire a warm blanket round her shoulders. House elves really were dear little people. Propped up on the chair next to her was the manuscript, still wrapped up in her wet cloak and that dripped slowly onto the flagstone floor.
She was just finishing the jacket potato they had cooked for her when four familiar faces came down the steps into the kitchens.
"I can't believe you're still hungry Sirius, we only had dinner a few hours ago," Remus was saying.
"And I can't believe that with all the food you eat you still aren't fat!" added Peter, wistfully eying Sirius' flat stomach.
"Cheer up Peter," Sirius said brightly, slapping his friend's tubby belly.
"You're just lucky you aren't on the Quidditch team," James told Sirius, "or I would have something serious to say about your diet!"
Sirius made a face at him.
"Can we help you?" squeaked a house elf, scurrying over. "The same as normal?"
Sirius nodded vigorously as James looked at the other two rolling his eyes.
Lily giggled and quickly looked away as the four turned to look at her, embarrassed that she had been caught overhearing their conversation. She put her plate down and picked up the manuscript frame in one hand, "thank you very much," she said to the house elves and started to walk to the stairs.
The others were stood in the way and moved to let her past. As she past James the grip on the frame slipped and she bent over quickly to stop it from hitting the ground. James bent just as she did to try and catch it too, and as she straightened the top of her head hit his chin.
"Ouch!"
"Oh sorry!" They chorused.
They laughed.
Lily smiled and nodded at him as she walked past him and up the stairs. He watched her go thoughtfully, those green eyes…that was all he could remember about the way she looked after she had turned from him, but he was sure he had seen them before. He turned to the others as she left and asked, "Guys, can you remember what she looked like?"
"Who?" Peter asked, hungrily eyeing the chocolate éclairs that the house elves had just brought over on a silver platter.
"The girl who just walked past us," James replied impatiently.
"You know," Remus said slowly, "I this odd feeling when I try to remember what she looks like. It's how I would imagine I'd feel if someone had performed a memory charm on me."
"You don't mean you think she-"
"No, Peter," interrupted Remus, "I just mean that something's not quite right with her."
"Well I don't like the sound of what you're implying," Sirius said, wiping a few crumbs from the corner of his mouth.
Remus shrugged, "I don't think that if she is doing anything that it's done with bad intent…"
"No of course not!" exclaimed James, "does she seem the sort to do something like that?"
"And just what sort do you think she is?" Remus asked gently, soothing his friend's uncharacteristic outburst.
"It's not as if we really know anything about her other than our wild speculation," Sirius added, "and why exactly are we spending such large periods of time musing about someone we can even remember the name of? The only thing I can remember about her is she has large green eyes."
"Exactly," replied James quickly, pouncing on his words, "can any of us remember anything other than those large beautiful eyes?"
Remus quickly hid a grin at the change in adjective and shook his head with the others.
"Well then, that must mean that there's something magical about her," concluded James, folding his arms across his chest as if he were daring his friends to contradict him.
"I'll say," Sirius replied with a grin, "I think we'd find after long investigation that she's a…wait for it… a witch!" He collapsed into laughter and started to chock on a bit of food. Peter hit him in between his broad shoulder blades a wide grin on his face. Remus grinned wryly as he watched for James' reaction.
James shook his head with mock solemnity, "honestly can't you ever be serious?" he asked his black haired friend.
"But I'm always Sirius!" he retorted, having recovered sufficiently to pun yet again on the pronunciation of his name.
Remus groaned, "the next person I hear make that joke is going to be in big trouble!" he vowed.
"One might even say Sirius trouble," Peter quipped, ducking the blow Remus aimed at his head and hiding behind Sirius.
"A man after my own heart," Sirius said, slinging an arm round Peter's shoulder, "we'll have you wooing the ladies Sirius style sooner than James can have another tantrum about people turning up late to Quidditch practice!"
James rolled his eyes at the pair of them and turned to Remus, "shall we go back up and leave these two clowns to each other?"
"Hey!" protested Sirius, "I am not a cl-no wait, you're right, maybe I am."
"Just maybe?" Remus asked, grinning.
"I prefer to be known as a badboy," Sirius replied, casually flicking a long lock of hair that had drooped over one of his eyes.
"Uh-huh, whatever you want," James replied indulgently.
"Hey, don't patronise me!"
"Come on Peter, I think it isn't too late to save you," Remus said, gently pushing the smallest of the four of them up the stairs. James and Sirius followed, bickering playfully.
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A/N: Ahh I really fancy Sirius….right that's not really relevant, I digress now where was I….
Ah yes, sorry this took a little longer than I intended, been busy moving back home for the holidays. Anyway, what do you think? I'll try to answer any questions that you ask and believe me you input does make a huge difference. Sometimes I have to rewrite extra bits or make things clearer because of what people tell me. So educate me people, you really do help to make this a better fic.
Questions people had about the last chapter:
The Marauders finding out about the fire thing- I don't know, haven't decided yet but if they do then it won't be for ages the Huntress thing is a major secret! Damia, interesting question and yes there are more than one of them, but Saffron isn't one, she has another role to play, but I can't say any more about it, big juicy secret.^__^ Alqualyne: right well the charm does make them less bright, but it doesn't cover them completely, the magic of the Huntress is stronger than her ordinary charm so they are much more noticeable than before. If you notice, it's all the Marauder's can remember about her when she's not there. They're only abnormally bright at the peak of her power i.e. when she was reborn into her birthright and at certain times of the month. And as for the Marauders seeing her, which people are very to ask about, patience is a virtue people, but you won't have to be patient for much longer!Aww I think this next chapter is soo cute, it'll be focused more on the James/Lily side rather than her search for more about The Moonlit Ones
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