Hearing the sound of footsteps, Saffron looked up to see Dumbledore walking along the corridor towards her.
"Fizzing Whizzbies," he said as he approached, the gargoyle barring the entrance to his office began to slide aside, "well Miss Potter, you'd better come up."
Saffron nodded a little apprehensively and followed him up the winding staircase. As they entered his office he gestured for her to sit and said, "So, you wanted to see me?"
She nodded and sat down. Hesitantly she said, "it's about my friend Lily Evans, she well...erm…I'm not sure what's wrong with her exactly, but erm…"
"Calm down and tell me the story from the beginning," Dumbledore said gently.
"Right," Saffron nodded and took a deep breath, "well, not last night but the night before we were up on the astronomy tower to see the lunar eclipse. But suddenly we heard this horrible scream- I couldn't say where it was coming from, and we were all a bit scared, but Lily seemed…to react differently."
"Oh?"
"Well, more or less as soon as we got up there she kept looking out towards the forest as if she was looking for something and then when we heard the scream again she began to climb down the ladder. I went after her, trying to ask her what was going on, but she said I couldn't come- but I knew something was wrong. But she had told me not to follow her so I went back up to the tower with James and when I looked back out towards the forest I saw someone running towards it from the castle, she had a long grey cloak on and what looked like a whitish dress on. I didn't know for sure it was her, but I had my suspicious so I stayed up and waited for her. And then, early in the morning she came back. She was absolutely exhausted, she could barely walk! And she was wearing her cloak and a silver-white tunic. But what shocked me the most were her arms- silver from fingertips to elbow!"
Dumbledore stood up abruptly.
Saffron continued, "I helped her to bed and she fell asleep right away, but she hasn't moved since. I've never known anyone to sleep this long, and I was worried. But I couldn't go to the hospital wing because they would see her arms and I know she doesn't want people to know. But she did say that if she wasn't back by the morning then I could come to you, so I think she trusts you, but I didn't want her to think I'd betrayed her so I've waited until now and…" she realised she was rambling and stopped.
"Have you noticed anything else unusual about her?" asked Dumbledore thoughtfully.
"Well, I've only really known her a couple of months professor, she had this charm-" she stopped and clapped a hand over her mouth, she hadn't meant to get Lily into trouble.
"It's ok Miss Potter, I know about the Mediocrity Charm," Dumbledore told her reassuringly. He was silent for a while. "We should get Lily to Madam Pomfrey just in case, let me deal with her questioning, I'll see to it that no-one else finds out about her arms. Find Professor Tempera and get her to take Lily to the hospital wing, I'll meet you there."
Saffron nodded and got up, "thank you."
Dumbledore nodded and smiled as she turned and ran down the stairs in search of her head of house. Fawkes flew down from his perch to sit on Dumbledore's lap,
"What do you think old friend? Has she returned?"
Fawkes squawked and inclined his plumed head in assent.
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"Enervate"
Lily opened her eyes tiredly and fought to focus her eyes. As things swam into focus she recognised the hospital wing. Looking round further she saw a nervous looking Saffron sat to her right and behind her Professor Tempera. On her other side sat Dumbledore, immediately she wondered what had happened about the note she sent him. And then she thought, 'what am I doing in the Hospital wing?'
She sat up tiredly and yawned widely.
"Still feeling tired Miss Evans? I was informed that you've had rather a long sleep," Dumbledore's eyes sparkled brightly behind his glasses and then looked serious, "How are you feeling?"
"Ok," replied Lily, "a little tired but then-" she paused and bit her lip.
"Then what?" Dumbledore asked.
"Ummm," Lily floundered.
"Madam Pomfrey, is Lily fit to get up yet? I have something I wish to discuss with her in private, preferable my office if she is well enough."
Madam Pomfrey bustled over and checked her over, "She's fine," she said decisively, "just drink this potion and you'll be good to go."
Obediently Lily took the potion from her and downed it. She made a face, it tasted very much like how she imagined slug puree would. But it seemed to do the trick and she felt her head clearing almost immediately and new energy coursing though her veins.
"I brought you some clothes," Saffron said nervously, holding out a pile of folded clothes.
"Thank you…what's wrong?" Lily asked.
"Nothing, I-you aren't mad at me are you?"
"Mad at you?! Why on earth should I be mad at you?"
"I don't know, because I told Dumbledore about you coming back and…you know, that's why you're here…" she tailed off and looked at the white sheets Lily lay under.
"Oh," Lily didn't quite know what to say, "well, I guess it's ok, I would probably have told him soon anyway."
Dumbledore cleared his throat. Lily coloured, they had been talking as if he wasn't there.
"Lily, as soon as you're dressed I'd like to speak to you in my office," Dumbledore said, rising.
She nodded and he left, beckoning Professor Tempera out after him to give the two girls some privacy.
Saffron pulled the curtain round the bed to let her change. As quickly as she could, Lily pulled on her jeans, t-shirt and jumper that Saffron had brought for her. Once she had done she pulled the curtain aside.
"Here, I thought you might want these," Saffron offered her a pair of white silk gloves.
"Thanks," Lily replied gratefully taking them. She paused to look at her arms and pushed up the sleeves of her jumper. It looked so odd! She flexed her fingers experimentally, they didn't feel different to normal.
"What does it feel like?" Saffron asked curiously.
"Pretty much normal, just a bit smoother and colder than usual I guess," Lily replied running a hand over her free arm. She held out her hands to Saffron.
Tentatively Saffron reached out to touch her friend's silver arms and hands. She gave a small gasp of shock, "they feel like ice!" She ran a hand up Lily's arms and over her palms.
Lily laughed, "that tickles!"
"Sorry," Saffron grinned, "how on earth did you manage to get your arms this colour anyway?"
Lily's smiled faded and she glanced around to check there was no-one else in the room. Then she beckoned Saffron forwards to whisper to her.
"Saffron, there's something about me that I want to tell you, I promised I would before and I mean to keep that promise. I-" she wasn't sure where to begin, "you know all the research I've been doing recently?"
"Yeah, about the Moonlit Ones."
Lily nodded, "well, what I didn't tell you is that I wasn't just doing it for school, in fact until you mentioned it I hadn't even thought about it. I was trying to find out about me, my heritage. Saffron I- I'm one of the Moonlit Ones."
"You're what?!" she exclaimed loudly.
"Shhh," Lily frowned, putting a finger to her lips.
Saffron lowered her voice, "sorry, I just…well I don't understand, what exactly are you telling me?"
"I should go to Dumbledore now, but if you go back to my room take a look at my notes on the manuscript, it might help to make things clearer. Then we can speak again after I've spoken to him ok?"
Saffron nodded, plainly still rather confused.
Together they left the Hospital wing and walked along the corridor towards Dumbledore's office in silence. Lily watched her gloved hands as she walked, rehearsing over in her head how she was going to explain to Dumbledore about things. Saffron was also deep in thought, her friend-the one who had made such an effort to be normal- had just turned out to be just about as abnormal as it was possible to be! If she hadn't been noticing odd things for the last month or so then she might have thought that Lily was playing some kind of elaborate joke on her, but as things were she didn't seriously entertain such thoughts.
Before they knew it they were stood outside the staircase leading to the Headmaster's office.
"Well I guess I'll see you later," Lily said.
"Yeah…good luck…the password's 'Fizzing Whizzbies'," Saffron replied.
"Thanks."
They stood in awkward silence for a moment before someone calling Saffron's name behind her drew her attention. She turned to see her brother hurrying up the corridor and when she looked back Lily had gone.
"Saffron!" James came to a halt in front of her, "what's going on? Are you going to tell me now?"
Saffron looked up at her brother thoughtfully. They had never had secrets from one another, but this time…well this time it wasn't really her secret to tell…but then again there was no-one she trusted more than her brother. She sighed, she had to tell him. As the saying went, 'blood is thicker than water'. "Yeah, I'm going to tell you. But first I want to go and check something out. Meet me in the library in about ten minutes and I'll tell you everything."
He nodded, "And Lily?"
"She's going to be fine."
"Right, well in that case I guess I'll meet you in ten minutes," he said. She nodded and ran off down the corridor leaving him standing there. 'It must be serious,' he thought worriedly. There had been a moment then when he wasn't sure she was going to tell him, he could see it in her face. She knew he would never tell anyone anything she told him and still she had hesitated. He shook his head and started to walk slowly to the library.
Saffron was almost a year younger than him, he was born in September and then she had been born the following August. It was pretty lucky they had been in the same year really. He knew that a lot of brothers and sisters fought but they never really had. They had grown up really close and shared everything with one another. He felt sorry for people who had no brothers or sisters; they could never know what it felt like to be so much a part of someone else. To know what each expression on their face meant, to know someone knew you better than you knew yourself, who knew all you faults intimately and would always be there no matter what. An unconditional love; so different from the love that existed between husbands and wives, that expected love in return, but what he and Saffron had expected nothing in return. He couldn't imagine life without her.
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A/N: awwwww bless his heart! Man, that was a long chapter. I'm doing the updates on all my stories, sheesh that's a marathon and a half! I know I did this last chapter, but I'm going to do it again- read 'The White Fire'! Keronshara went and read it and she really liked it, (thanks Keronshara-you rock!) so some of the rest of you go check it out! Now! Hehehe…..anyway…..
Thanks to all my reviewers, you make my day!
Nittie Iz- yeah, 'New Wine' was great, and yeah it's nice to know there are other Christians out there, lets other people know we're not all a bunch of freaks, honestly the ideas some people have about us…anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter which I've decided on the spur of the moment to dedicate to all my brothers and sisters in Christ, God Bless and keep you all!
Well, assuming my little outburst hasn't scared away the rest of you, I'll see you in the next chapter ^__^