She stared at the figures on the ground, what was she to do with them? Really, she hadn't a clue. But she didn't want to kill them. Even though she knew what they had done how could she kill them as they were? It would be like killing them in their sleep-cowardly. 'And,' a voice in her head said, 'not in the spirit of the Hunt'.
As Io lowered her head so she could grab onto her mane, Lily thought to herself, she'd send Dumbledore a message. He'd know what to do with them. Astride Io, Lily summoned the remnants of her power to send a silver star into the air above them, one that could not be removed, but would vanish when the sun came up. Then she clung on wearily as Io gently trotted to the edge of the forest.
"You have done well," Io said approvingly, nuzzling her gently as Lily stood in front of her. "We're all very grateful."
"You're welcome," Lily replied tiredly with a huge yawn. She nodded and turned to walk back to the castle.
She stumbled along blankly towards the castle, unthinkingly willing it to be that bit closer, but thankfully for her, she had no magic left to make that work. At the steps she stooped to pick up her wand. It was then she noticed her odd appearance. Sitting heavily on the steps she pulled a tissue from the pocket of her cloak and wiped off most of the blood, both silver and red, from her knees and brushed away any remaining fragments of crystal.
Using the door handle to lever herself up, she got to her feet and quietly opened the door and went inside. The candles on the walls were still lit but were much dimmer; unsteadily she wandered along the corridor, one hand on the wall to support her.
"The note for Dumbledore," she murmured, remembering. She sighed, he'd probably find out it was her somehow, but then gain there was always the chance that she'd remain anonymous. Either way it was worth the risk and she trusted Dumbledore completely. Finding her way to the entrance to his office she rummaged around in the small desk in front of it and found one of the pieces of paper intended to be used for leaving messages when he wasn't there.
Wearily she scribbled what she hoped was a reasonably legible note and posted it in the slot by the door. Then she walked back towards the Ravenclaw common room.
She tripped over the raised step into the common room and groaned.
"Lily?" Saffron jumped up from the seat she had been sitting on in front of the fire. She had stayed up all night waiting for her to get back, "is that you?"
Lily looked up and sighed, she was too tired to explain anything. Saffron ran over and helped her to her feet.
"What happened?" she asked anxiously, helping her to a sofa.
Lily shook her head and closed her eyes, resting her head on the sofa.
"What happened to your arms?!?!" Saffron exclaimed.
She opened her eyes and looked down at her arms. They were silver from finger-tips to elbow. Lily was too tired to do anything other than stare at them, to be honest she wasn't that surprised.
"And your lips!" Saffron moved to sit by her friend, "why are they silver?"
'The horn,' thought Lily. Then she mumbled out loud, "please, just help me to bed. I need to sleep."
Saffron nodded, frowning with worry as she put her arm round Lily and helped her along the corridor to their room. The other two girls were fast asleep and knew nothing of Lily's late night return.
As Saffron hung the tunic and cloak up in the wardrobe she said quietly, "you've got a lot of explaining to do Lily Evans." She looked back at her friend but Lily was already fast asleep.
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Hundreds of miles away high up within the heart of the tallest mountain in Greece something stirred. A bright green eye opened sleepily and a long neck lifted its head and listened to a sound blown on the wind. The call of a hunting horn.
With a tremendous effort he stood, throwing off its back rocks and rubble that fallen on it during his centuries-long rest. A cloud of dust swirled round the small cavern in which he stood and he stamped his feet and snorted. An ear-piercing shriek filled the air and the walls began to tremble, shingle falling off onto the floor. It grew louder and louder and the walls vibrated violently. There was a huge cracking noise and one side of the cavern burst outwards scattering its debris down the mountainside. The ceiling shook and with another shriek he took off into the night's sky, a cloud of grey dust followed him as it tumbled off his sleek coat, brushed away by the cool wind.
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Saffron paced up and down in the corridor outside Dumbledore's office, trying to decide if she was doing the right thing. Lily hadn't moved since yesterday morning, all she had done was sleep, and that was not natural! She'd tried to wake her, but to no avail. And her arms, they were still silver, the same silver as her nails. Thinking back to that time when Lily had spilt that tea at breakfast she thought she felt the beginnings of understanding something. Somehow the two events were connected.
She didn't want Lily to think she'd betrayed her, goodness knows she'd had enough trouble to get her to trust her in the first place! But she was worried about her, really worried!
"Saffron?" James was coming down the corridor with a group of prefects, "What are you doing?"
"I'm waiting to see Dumbledore," she replied, twisting her hands nervously.
James raised an eyebrow in alarm, Saffron was never nervous, never. She was always cool and calm- well not calm- but never like this. And why did she want to see Dumbledore? That could only be about something serious. "What's wrong?" he asked anxiously taking her arms, "are you alright?"
"Potter, we have to go," said one of the prefects behind him, "Dumbledore'll be waiting for our reports."
"I'm fine," Saffron reassured her brother, pushing him gently away, "go on, you can tell him I'll be waiting for him afterwards."
James nodded slowly.
"Hey Saffron, do you know where Lily is?" asked Dan, the other Ravenclaw prefect, "She's supposed to be here. I've been looking for her since yesterday, but no-one seems to have seen her, other than Meg and Amy, who could only tell me she's probably around somewhere. I mean you would think that her own year mates would know where she was!"
"She's ill," replied Saffron too quickly, she was unsurprised that Dan could remember Lily, she'd probably adjusted the charm for his sake. It wouldn't do for the other Ravenclaw prefect not to remember conversations they'd had or other prefect duties. Sometimes Saffron wondered exactly how many people were excluded from Lily's charm. Personally, she thought it would just be a whole lot easier if Lily just got rid of the whole thing all together. But she could be extremely stubborn, she'd have to work on her to let it go.
James looked at her sharply, "What's going on?" he demanded.
"Look I'll tell you after alright? I promise," Saffron said, pushing him firmly towards the others, "the sooner you go and give in these reports the sooner I can speak to Dumbledore and the sooner I can speak to you, so just go!"
James frowned and opened his mouth to say something else when Dan took his elbow, "just do as she says Potter, you do not want to make Saffron angry, believe you me!" He grinned at her.
"Fine!" muttered James angrily as they marched on down the corridor. "And just what did you mean by that?" he added suspiciously.
"We used to date," Dan replied, "didn't you know? She's a regular firecracker!"
"What? When?" demanded James, rounding on the Ravenclaw.
"Oh a while back, fifth year. We only dated for a couple of months," he seemed unperturbed by the small twitch appearing under James' left eye.
James took several deep breaths, "But it's over now right?"
"Sure," Dan replied, "Don't get me wrong, she's a great girl but even if I did still like her that way- which I don't- I'm sure she has her eye on someone else."
"Who?" James asked immediately.
"Don't know exactly," he admitted, "but some of the girls seem to, or at least they pretend that they do. You know what I mean?"
"Oh that whole, 'honestly you men are so blind' routine?" Josh, the Hufflepuff prefect asked.
"Got it in one," Dan replied with a grin.
"Are you alright Potter?" Josh asked, glancing at James' slightly flushed face and grim expression.
"Oh don't mind him," Miranda said, she was the other prefect from Gryffindor, where James' overprotective brother syndrome was infamous. "He tends to get his knickers in a twist whenever Saffron's dating habits are mentioned."
"Shut up," James growled, crossing his arms across his chest and glaring at her. She smiled back sweetly and ruffled his hair. He swatted her hand away and glared mutinously at her.
Miranda turned the others, "You should see the number of fights that break out between Potter and Sirius about Saffron!"
Dan laughed and punched James playfully on the arm, "I don't know why you'd bother, Black's just a randy git, he's probably just doing it to wind you up."
"Well it works," James replied huffily.
As soon as they reached the room where the rest of the teachers were waiting James went straight over to speak to Dumbledore while the others sat themselves in chairs arranged in a circle.
"Professor, my sister is waiting to speak with you outside your office, I think it's important," he said quietly, watching intently to see what his headmaster's reaction would be.
Dumbledore looked thoughtful, "Is she now? Did she tell you why?"
James shook his head, "no, only that nothing's wrong with her," he hesitated, "but I think that it has something to do with Lily Evans."
Dumbledore looked up sharply, "what makes you say that?"
He shrugged, and simply said, "I'm her brother; I see things that most people would miss."
The old wizard stroked his long beard thoughtfully, the others were watching with curiosity. Eventually he nodded and sat down, turning to the others, "I would like you to all make written reports, one for each house, concerning the security of common rooms and dorms. Also include any other areas that you believe should be investigated as possible weak spots. I would like to remind you that this is only a precautionary measure and that I do not envisage an attack on the school. However, as no doubt some of you will know from being in boy scouts when you were younger, there's no harm in being prepared." His eyes twinkled and he smiled at them, "hand in these reports as soon as you finish them, I don't imagine it should take you more than a few days." He nodded to them all and walked briskly out of the room towards his office.
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A/N: Sooo sorry for the long wait you guys have had! I've been on holiday, busy busy....first I was at a camp called 'New Wine' a Christian conference thing. I looked after the ickle people in a group called 'Pebbles', they were so cute! And only 3! *excited scream as urge to hug invisible small child rises* One little girl gave me a tile she made for me at the end..soo cute! Anyway.......and after that I went to Alton Towers! Yeah baby!! So much fun, I only got back today. Anyone else been??
Right, well hope I didn't bore you too much with the brief history of my activities ^__^ hope you enjoyed this latest instalment. Oh yeah, and check out 'The White Fire' that's mine too, I love writing that, it's so fun!