(Thank you to anyone who reviewed. This chapter has to have been the most fun to write... for me at least. It gave me a chance to experiment with characters. Next chapter will be fun for me too! And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Snape... My sister asked me when he was going to pop up... I told her that I was planning to work him in after Christmas... But... who knows? Often times these things work out themselves. Special thanks to Dweizlegirl for being so cool.)
Chapter 14 Potions and The Suit of Armor
November passed into December. Hogwarts first snow blizzard cam and students bundled up to fight against the cold. Most of the time, Gryffindors could be seen huddling around the common room fire.
Hogsmeade came and went. Ally collected several bags of candy from Honeydukes and bought a deck of self-shuffling cards from Zonkos and a fake wand. Lily didn't buy anything except a few chocolate balls. Pria bought a foe glass and Carla bought a spell checking quill that the group borrowed quite often for homework, save for Lily.
Ally and Lily still went to the library everyday. Lily went to do her homework and study and Ally went to look through the mass amount of books for anything on Tom Riddle. Despite her efforts, she never found anything.
Soon, Ally wasn't able to look for Riddle in the library; teachers were piling more homework on as Christmas break grew closer and closer. Ally and Lily were too caught up in essays to bother researching.
Potions Class...
"Today class, we are going to be making the Befuddlement Draught. The instructions are on the board. Begin."
Professor Slughorn spun the board around and instructions appeared in tiny slanted writing.
Add significant amount of scurvy grass to potion set at medium flames
Crush tubeworms using copper plate, scrape into left side of cauldron.
Stir counterclockwise until the potion turns clear as water.
Stir clockwise seven times; add peeled shrivelfigs while stirring counterclockwise.
Peel—
"Briggs! Ugh! Honestly!" Ally shouted at him, "Did you have to spill that all over my textbook!"
"S-Sorry, Al." her lab partner stuttered.
Ally clenched her fist but didn't say anything as her partner returned to his potion. She took her book and shook it out over the side of the desk. Looking at the page she noticed that some of the ink was running and at some parts it was blotched too much to read.
Ally sighed and shot her desk partner a murderous look before returning to her potion.
5) Peel the ---–tentacl-s add---clockwise sev—n times stir –lilac blue smoke-
6)Skin the –-- off of sophr----- juice using--- ver dagger and let sit---- seventeen seconds stir---ver---flames on high—clockwise.
7) Chop blue –weed and ----sever off the rema—ng top of scur-y gr—s, stir ----clockwise and let sit---n—teen seconds until --------smoke vital finishing stage.
8) Pick out the ----tuber pus and smoke ou—any rem---ing sophro—s juic-- –he-----shou—be thecolor lime gre—n.
Ally quickly finished up her potion after re-reading the directions over and over again, trying to figure out what the book said. Her potion was now a dark green. She looked over at the other potions in the class, all emitting a light green smoke.
Okay...mine's slightly off... at least it isn't as bad as Briggs. She glanced over at him and could see his potion was bubbling dangerously and was pitch black. I don't even want to know what those specks are... She bottled up a sample of her potion and ran to the front desk to place it on Slughorn's desk... just as the bell rang.
"George Briggs what in the world is the matter with your—"
Too late...Ally thought morbidly as the potion exploded, covering George entirely. His skin turned a dark purple and he was waving his arms around madly.
"I can't see! I can't see!" he shouted.
"Boy! BOY! Shut up already! Class, dismiss yourselves!" He shouted over the boy's wailing.
"Miss Pierce! Miss Evans! Please clean up this mess while I escort Mr. Briggs to the hospital wing."
He left the classroom after the students quickly filed out, wanting to get away from the rapidly spreading black ooze.
"Great!" Ally cried out, "First he ruins my textbook and now he makes me clean up after him! Ugh! I can't stand that guy!"
She flicked her wand at the back desks and they immediately began to organize themselves.
"It's not his fault..." Lily said while scourgifying the spreading black potion, "He just has really bad luck.
Ally went around the classroom and was using her wand to make the remaining potion disappear.
"I know... I just wish he didn't..." Ally said, "Hey, do you know where he keeps these old books?" She held up her soggy potions book.
"Over there," Lily pointed to a bettered old cabinet, "There's a whole pile of them." She turned back to arranging the ingredients on the shelves.
"Thanks," Ally opened the cabinet, "I'll just exchange this thing," she held up her copy, "For something half way decent."
She shuffled through the books until she found the best available copy. Then replacing it with her wet one, she stuffed the book in her bag and returned to emptying the cauldrons. Soon she came across her dark green one.
Somewhere to her left something let off a BANG!
"Sorry," Lily said sheepishly.
Ally still jumped in surprise and crashed into the cauldron in back of her. The cauldron spilt over the floor and Ally jumped onto the desk to avoid getting caught in it.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked as her friend stood up on the desk.
Ally paid her no attention and started to inch away from the edge. Unfortunately for her she knocked over a vat full of dead black beetles into her potion. The dark green potion turned clear white in an instance and began to let off a dark purple smoke.
"What did you do?" Lily said, annoyed, and she pulled out her wand.
Ally jumped down from the desk onto the floor, accidentally landing in the potion she previously knocked over.
Purple smoke filled the room. Ally cried out but she couldn't hear anything. She tried to find Lily but the smoke was too thick. Black spots appeared in her vision and filled up her eyes and soon she couldn't see anything. Eventually she heard Lily fall next to her and in a few seconds she was unconscious also.
Ally's Dream...
Ally was in a hall... the great hall. She knew it was the great hall because of the candles, floating around just above her head. But that was the problem. They were just above her head. Everyone else was taller than her, so the candles began to hit them in the head.
Everyone was yelling at her to go and for Hagrid to come in. Hagrid was standing at the entrance to the hall, and there was a crowd yelling at him to come in. Ally ducked and ran past everyone toward the back of the halls; she exited the hall through one of the back doors. For some reason the world was turned black and white as she was running through the halls. Tom Riddle was following her, he was shouting at her.
"Stop running!"
"I can't! The candles will hit you!"
She continued to run through the halls as fast as her feet could carry her. Tom caught up to her and pulled her around. He pushed her into the hall and before she could turn around she was on a collision course with the Hogwarts Express.
She jumped back onto the platform in Hogsmeade just before the train hit her. Looking around she wondered why it wasn't snowing. The train stopped and out came a hundred students... except they had all forgotten to put on their Hogwarts robes.
They were milling around and Ally got lost in the crowd. She was shoved and pushed around for a long time; everyone seemed to be taller than her. She pushed everyone away and was almost blinded as a light hit her face.
"Firs' years! Firs' Years...!"
"Hagrid!" Ally yelled and ran for him. Except by the time she got to him, he was already in the boats. Unfortunately, Ally couldn't stop from momentum and fell into the lake. She drifted down into the water and saw a figure at the bottom.
The figure was large, very large. Suddenly it disappeared into an underwater corridor, Ally swum as fast as she could and found herself in the corridor. She was walking down the hallway; somehow she had gotten out of the Black Lake, and heard a scream. She ran toward the Gryffindor common room, but when she got there it was too late.
Death Eaters stood around in a circle and Pria was standing in the middle. She was trying to talk to the Death Eaters but they only spoke troll.
"Why don't you try to stun them!" Ally called out.
Pria didn't respond, she ran up the astronomy tower which was somehow relocated to the Gryffindor Common Room. Ally followed her in hot pursuit. There was a red light in front of them and they both froze. Lily appeared next to Ally.
"Al, run into the room next to you!"
Ally threw open the door that appeared next to her and Pria, Ally and Lily ran into the empty trophy room.
"Why is it so dusty in here?" Lily asked.
"I don't know. We still have to serve detention Ally." Remus appeared out of the dust. He was covered in the dust himself. His hair was very silky silver and he shook himself off.
"Still?" Ally said, "Can't we ask McGonagall to give us a little while longer? Just pretend you're still sick."
"Yeah, Moony!" Sirius appeared behind her, "That's a good idea, you faint and it'll give us an excuse to get out of Charms class."
"We should save it until morning." James apparated into the room.
"You can't apparate!" Ally said, "It's illegal, the ministry will catch you!"
"No they won't." Peter said, "The ministry is having an interview with the Prophet right now."
"All of them?"
"Yep. We can get away with just about anything!" He smiled maniacally and held up his wand.
"Avada Kedavra!" he shouted.
Green Light filled the room and Ally screamed and shut her eyes. She opened her eyes and everyone was staring at her.
"What's the matter Al?" Lily asked, "It was just a spider! We should be thanking Peter for killing it!"
A huge celebration came out of no where and Peter was hoisted on everyone shoulders. They bounced him up and down and soon the entire Divination tower was full of celebrating students and teachers.
"Long Live Peter!" a shout arose.
"Are you all crazy!" Ally shouted, "He killed that spider!"
"No he didn't!" Tom Riddle said, "I killed the spider! See?" he hoisted the giant trophy onto the table and showed everyone. The words FOR SPECIAL SERVICES TO THE SCHOOL were emblazoned on the front.
"Tom is right." Hagrid said, for some reason he was crying, "The spider's dead..."
A shout rose up and everyone in the party looked out the window.
"The Dark Mark!" Cornelius Fudge, assistant to the Minister of Magic, shouted and pointed. "The Dark Mark! No one move! We must tell Dumbledore!"
Briggs, who was stirring the punch and trying to fix his potion, ran from the room to get Dumbledore, tripping on the way out. Everyone was silent, not one person moved. The room went deathly cold and the Death Eaters swept in.
Since no one was able to move, they killed off each person one by one and finally rounded up a select group.
Ally was one of the few people in that group. She huddled close to Pria and Lily. The rest of the group consisted of Carla, James, Peter, and Sirius. Peter ran over behind the Death Eaters and ran out of the door.
"Coward!" James yelled, "It wasn't you we should have tru—"
He was cut off as green light filled the room and the last of the students fell to the floor, Ally being one of them. The last she saw was a boney figure laughing, his red eyes meeting hers.
Ally shot up, out of the hospital bed and pulled back the covers; she grabbed her wand and stood. Pointing her wand and the voices in the room she spun around.
"Where's Tom Riddle?" she said frantically.
"Oh, get a grip girl!" Madam Pomfrey said, coming into view.
She pulled the wand out of her hand and sat her down on the side of the bed.
"Your friend knocked over a potion while you were cleaning up. Sadly for you, she hasn't relaxed at all, like I told her to the last time she was here."
"Huh?" Ally said after taking in her surroundings. She was at the hospital wing; there were a few students there. Briggs, for instance, was lying down, covered in a goopy violet paste. Ally could see that the clock said three o' clock. I must've been out for a while.
"What did you say?"
"I said your friend knocked over a potion." Madam Pomfrey said.
"Wha-? But it wasn't Lily, it was me who knocked over the—" Madam Pomfrey shushed her and pulled her to her feet.
"Whatever you're babbling about doesn't matter. You can still make your eighth timetable class."
Ally stood there, confused. I don't have am eighth timetable today... I only have seven...
"Madam Pomfrey, pardon but—"
"Quickly, quickly!" she ushered Ally out of the hospital wings double doors, "I know how important classes are to you Miss Evans."
The double doors slammed behind Ally with a deafening boom. I don't think I'm the only one who got hit in the head today...
Ally shrugged her shoulders and made her way toward the Gryffindor common room. Soon after reaching the portrait of the fat lady she realized she didn't have the familiar weight of her book bag around her shoulder.
I must've forgotten it in the Potions class, she sighed, why does everything bad happen to me...?
She closed the portrait and ran back down to the dungeons. As she was running she passed Carla and Pria.
"Hey guys!" she panted and waved as she passed them, still jogging.
"Hey Lil! Where are you going that you have to run there?"
Ally didn't have time to ask why they called her Lil. Probably said the wrong name by accident... Grabbing her book bag from the Potions classroom she rushed out the door. Darn it! Ally checked the time. I'm late to meet Lily in the library.
She ran through the corridors, cursing how large the castle was. Turning a corner too fast, Ally tripped over herself and dropped her books.
"Great!" she said sarcastically.
She knelt down to pick up her books and gathered her things. An ink bottle crashed to the floor when she dropped her bag and covered most of her books. She busied herself trying to save some of her homework.
Two hands appeared out of nowhere and helped her organize the growing mess on the floor. She looked up as James pulled out his wand and the spilled ink disappeared. He held out his hand to Ally.
"Thanks, James." she sighed and took his hand. As he pulled her up Ally could see him smiling confidently.
"What's up with you?" she had to smile at how dumb he was acting.
"I knew one day we would come to be on first name basis, my sweet."
"Huh?" Ally replied, "We've always been on first name basis... What are you talking about?"
His face lit up and then he spun her around and took her arm, leading her down the hallway.
"Nothing, nothing, I should have known you would see my superiority to the other guys in our school one day." he led her down the hallway.
"Where are you taking me?" Ally asked in befuddlement. Maybe he's ill... Should I report this? I should find Sirius; he'll know what's wrong with him. Alright, I just have to act calm, sudden movements could distract him.
"Wherever you want to go, Evans..."
Oooooh, perhaps his vision is impaired... But no one would ever mistake me for Lily, he must be insane... Yes, that's it, he's mental... I have to find some way to shake him off and then get help. He could be dangerous. Quick! Mind, play my theme song!
"Could we go to the Library?" she said, whirling him around to the stairway.
"Absolutely, what a wonderful idea! We could read books, you like books don't you? I always see you reading them. You like strawberries too, and I like strawberries. I also like Quidditch. Do you like Quidditch? I haven't seen you at any of the games this year, I play chaser, you know. I even have an award for it! I bet you one day I'll go pro. I'd like to play seeker too..."
James continued to talk about the things he liked and the things Lily and he had in common as they walked to the library. He must really be screwed up... Maybe we can get him to Mungo's for treatment. Ally began to devise several escape plans as she walked arm and arm toward the library.
Soon as they approached the library, they ran into Sirius.
"Hey Prongs, what are you--? Er—?" he stopped as he caught sight of James and Ally.
Ally looked at Sirius desperately and mouthed the words 'Help me!' Sirius looked from Ally to James, who was still talking about how great he was in transfiguration, and nodded.
"...You know, I even managed to become an anim—"
"Prongs! Mate, you know that we're having an emergency meeting out on the Quidditch pitch! Wood arranged it; we need to work on our passing."
Sirius steered James away from Ally.
"Get down to the pitch! I'll catch you there later; Wood wants to talk to you first."
"Er... Hope you don't mind Lily. Quidditch calls."
"Oh, no, I don't mind at all James. Go on... go."
"I'm really sorry—"
"GO!"
"Right! Thanks!" he waved, grinning madly, and disappeared around the corner.
"Thank God you're here!" Ally said, "I think he's lost his mind! He was calling me sweetie and—and—well, that was basically it, but it was still scary!"
Sirius looked at her weirdly.
"He always calls you those things, and since when do you need help getting rid of James? Most of the times you don't need anyone else to help you engage him in a fight."
"What are you talking about? He never calls me any of those things! And I barely talk to him most of the time, how could we get into a fight?"
Sirius looked at her in shock. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, like a fish would do. Coming to his senses, he finally responded.
"You know I heard about a potions accident in your class... Slughorn never said what it did." he muttered, and then out loud he said, "Where you one of the two people hit by that smoke in potions? I've been hearing about it all day."
"Eeeeer yeah... what does that have to do with how James is crazy?"
"James isn't crazy Lil. I think you might be a bit messed up."
"Why does everyone keep calling me Lil! My name is Al! AUGH! No it's not, my name is Ally."
"No... You're Lily..."
"No. I'm. Not. I'm beginning to think you're more messed up than James."
"No Lily... I think you're confused," he spun her around to look at her reflection in a suit of armor; "You're Lily."
Ally screamed.
Suit of Armor POV
I hate this spot... I want to go back to the entrance hall.
Ally POV
Red hair...
Green eyes...
Lily's face...
Lily's body...
"OMIGOD, I'M LILY! SHE STOLE MY BODY! NO WAIT! I STOLE HERS! I'M A BODY STEALER! I'M GOING TO GO TO AZKABAN AND THEY'LL MAKE ME DO THEIR LAUNDRY! I'M NOT MADE FOR COMMON LABOR, I NEED PAMPERING! WAIT! THIS ISN"T MY BODY! LILY NEEDS PAMPERING... or does she...? I could go to Azkaban but it wouldn't matter because it's Lily... OH MY GOSH I'M LILY! OR LILY'S ALLY... OR ALLY INVADED MY MIND IF I'M LILY... I'M CONFUSING MYSELF!"
Ally was hysterical and pulled at Lily's hair while she screamed bloody murder.
"LILY! WHERE ARE YOU!"
"CALM DOWN!" Sirius shook her by the shoulders.
"I CAN'T CALM DOWN! I'M LILY!"
"I said calm down." Sirius said in a deathly cold tone.
Ally shut up and closed her mouth with a snap. She stood there whimpering.
"Slughorn... can... fix... it... we... just... need ... to... find... your... body." he said very slowly.
Ally's—er—Lily's face lit up and her frantic breathing stopped. Of course... Slughorn can do it... he has to be able to fix it... Isn't he supposed to be the Potions Master? And if not, I'm surrounded by wizards and witches... my uncle owns Mungo's, he can fix it... and Dumbledore wouldn't allow anything to happen to me.
Ally took a deep breath and steadied herself.
Alright... find Lily... or... find me.
"Great! Let's go find my body!"
She pulled Sirius along with her and ran toward the hospital wing.
Lily POV
Lily woke up with a start.
Ugh... my head hurts so badly. She sat up on her hospital bed abruptly and immediately regretted it... not a good idea...she thought. The light hurt her head immensely. She threw back the covers and staggered to a standing position.
Looking around she threw on her cloak and grabbed her bag. Maybe I can still make it to my Muggle Studies class. She threw a glance at the clock. Three thirty.
I can still catch the ending if I hurry.
She ran out the hospital wing in a flash while shouting a thank you to Madam Pomfrey.
She ran through the halls and began the long climb toward the tower. Oh, no. The professors are going to be so mad at me. I missed so much homework, how will I catch up? I'll have to sacrifice my meeting with Ally.
She passed by Remus who was on his way down the tower with the rest of her Muggle Studies class. Lily sighed. Looks like I did miss my class after all. Well, might as well meet with the professor to get the homework.
"Al!"
Who?
Remus ran toward her and handed her a scribbled down assignment.
"Thought you could give this to—"
"Oh, thank you Remus!" she threw her arms around her friends and grabbed the assignment on the paper, "Now I won't have to deal with the professor, you know how I hate to disappoint them."
"Sorry, what?" Remus looked at her in surprise, "I didn't know your friend's homework meant that much to you."
Lily wasn't listening, though. She was looking over the assignment.
"Do you know how much I missed in class? From the looks of this, I missed a lot. I can barely understand anything on this paper."
"Well..." he looked at her and then shrugged, "Since you got in that potions accident (don't look so surprised, it's all over the school), you missed bobertubers in Herbology and you missed working with fire omens in Divination. Oh! And you missed your Diricawl with Sirius."
"No, I'm talking about what I missed in Muggle Studies. And I'm working with Beatrice in Care of Magical Creatures."
"You don't take Muggle studies, Al."
"Yes I do... and why are you calling me Al?"
"Oh... I thought you liked it." Remus said in surprise, they had stopped walking and sat down on a bench outside. Lily took out her books from her bag. Remus followed her example, but they kept talking. It was snowing lightly, but a simple 'impervius' charm kept the weather from ruining their homework.
"Why would I like being called Ally's nickname? And I do too take Muggle Studies! I sit in the front row, for goodness sake."
"Oh, sorry." Remus said quickly, dismissing the subject matter, thinking that Ally had simply taken the subject up recently and had missed her first lesson because of a potions accident.
"So have you told Sirius you've switched partners?"
"I haven't switched partners... And why would I tell Sirius anything?" Lily had a sharp tone to her voice she didn't intend.
"Oh," Remus said, and quietly he added, "I thought you were friends..."
"I'm sorry, Remus," Lily sighed, "I just have a lot of homework to catch up on, especially now that I missed all my classes."
"I've never known you to be all that concerned about homework..."
"What, are you kidding me!" Lily looked up from her Potions homework and stared at him, "I always get my homework done first! It would be irresponsible if I didn't."
"Wow," Remus said, "You've really turned over a new leaf."
"What are you talking about? I've always been like this, Remus."
"I guess I never noticed before..." he blushed and turned back to his book on forest animals.
"So all those years of studying together have had no effect on you? Do you even remember what I was like around the O.W.L.S?"
"Okay, now I know I'm not crazy when I say this," he looked at her incredulously, "You weren't here when we took the O.W.L.S."
"Yes I was! I was sitting five rows behind you and three seats to the left."
"No... You were at Beauxbatons... In France... you hadn't moved here yet, Al."
"You're insane!" Lily stood up, finally having enough, "I think you need you need your head checked. And I told you to stop calling me Ally's nickname!"
"You are Ally."
"I'm Lily!"
"Ally!"
"Lily!"
"Ally!"
"Lily!"
Remus dragged her over to the side of the lake.
"What are you doing Remus? Let me go? Where are you taking me? This isn't a nice thing for a friend to do!"
He reached the edge of the lake and pointed to her reflection.
"You're Ally." he said firmly.
Lily took one look at her reflection and did a double take.
That's not my hair... it's not red... why is it black? What's wrong with my reflection?
She stared at her reflection and looked at Remus.
"That's not me..."
"I figured that." he said sarcastically.
"What am I going to do? Remus! That's not me. It's Ally, I'm Lily... How did this happen?"
She slowly and carefully sat down on the rock next to the lake and took deep breaths. This isn't happening... this can't be happening... I'm going to be stuck like this.
"I can't stay like this... I have N.E.W.T.S next year... Who has my body? What are they doing with my body?"
She was trying to act calm... but couldn't. Soon, she was in a panic.
"What if I never find it? What if I die? Will they die, too? Will I be stuck like this? What am I going to do? Remus, you have to help me!"
"Relax, Lily..." Remus said, "I'm sure someone can fix it... Why don't we head to Hagrid's for a cup of tea, I'm sure he'll know what to do..."
He helped her up and steered her toward the hut near the forest. All the while, Lily couldn't help thinking about what her body was doing...
(A/N evil laughter didn't expect that did you? Oh, and If you see any typos, mail me with the chapter name and where the typo is! I'll patch it up in a flash! Thanks! BentReeds)