Author's Note: I'm embarrassed to admit how long it actually took me to write this chapter. I had most of it written out for a long time and then I would add bits and pieces to it every once in awhile. I do have to say that waiting does help me a bit though, since I might not have thought to put certain things in this chapter, like the twins. So yay?
Anyway, this chapter is a little longer, so I hope you'll enjoy that. I threw a little bit of everything into it and we have a cameo of a certain someone who may or may not officially turn up at some point. We'll see. :)
So.. reviews! From.. December. The guilt!
KijoKuroi: Thanks. :) I just had to throw the mention of Phil in there. I love Phil.
SimpleWriter44: Merry extremely late Christmas back at you!
M.v.j.M.: I do too. The Whomping Willow seems to have a bit of a personality in the book, so I decided to amplify it and make it more sentient in the fic. We'll definitely be seeing more of it in the future.
CrossoverJunkie: That is very true. It makes me wonder how everyone would be sorted if they had a resort later on. Anyway, I thought even the Slytherins would get worried about a child. They are human, after all. :)
Now finally, on with the fic!
Chapter Twelve: Playtime
Lillian scrunched down in the blanket as she tried to get more comfortable but only succeeded in messing the blanket up.
Professor Snape rolled his eyes as he straightened the blanket out and began to tuck it in at the sides, ensuring that the blanket wouldn't fall off of the child in the middle of the night.
Lillian blinked and looked up at Professor Snape in surprise since he didn't seem like the sort of person who would tuck her in at night.
Maybe staying with him wouldn't be so bad, she mused to herself as Professor Snape suddenly froze and then hastily drew away from the couch as though just realizing what he had been doing.
He stood awkwardly for a moment, before waving his wand, causing several of the lights that had been lit around the quarters to extinguish, leaving the dim light of the dying fire to light his sitting room. It would be dark enough for sleep, yet still light enough to enable Lillian to see should she need to get up for anything.
With another wave of his wand, Professor Snape cast a silent monitoring spell over Lillian, since unlike that fool Lockhart, he was smart enough to remember that Lillian might not stay put either for the entire night or when she woke up and he would like to be informed of when she moved from the couch for any reason.
Lillian blinked as she felt the tingle of magic wash over her and Professor Snape noticed the faint glow emanating from her bracelet as his spell washed over her, and remembered the revelation he had before.
He wondered how it could be possible for Lillian to be his cousin and a Seasonal at the same time. However, there couldn't be any denying that she probably was one. Her "accidental" magic was far too powerful for a small child.
"Do you want to try and recover some memories?" he finally asked her, after looking at her contemplatively for a few moments.
Lillian yawned and rubbed an eye sleepily.
"No, 'm tired," she admitted. Not only had she been up extra early, but all that crying had really taken it out of her. Not to mention that she was used to going to bed early now, as Gilderoy never let her stay up late anyway.
Professor Snape had to squash his disappointment at that. He thought for certain that if he could poke around in her mind, he might be able to determine once and for all if Lillian was a Seasonal or just an extraordinarily gifted young witch.
"Very well," he said curtly, deciding that he could poke around in her mind the next day since it would be Sunday.
He turned to head off to his potions lab since it was far too early for him to go to bed, when Lillian's voice called after him.
"Aren't you going to read me a story?" she asked him. "Gilderoy always reads me a story to help me fall asleep."
Professor Snape sighed at that and settled on reading Lillian a potions text, since he actually didn't have any story books for children. She had her wooden box with her, that contained all sorts of things to keep her occupied with, but he decided a potions text would lull her to sleep faster. He was certain she'd find the material above her head and extremely boring.
Half an hour later, Lillian stared wide-eyed from her spot on the couch as she heard all about how to prepare ingredients properly.
"Slicing is different from dicing and should be noted that it is also different from chopping," Professor Snape read aloud in his most monotone voice. He glanced down at Lillian and was irritated to see that she was completely fascinated by this mundane explanation.
Ordinarily, he might be flattered that she was taking such an interest in potions, but all he wanted right now was for her to go to sleep. He didn't trust her not to wander if he left her alone while she was still so awake.
He turned the page and found that he had moved from preparing ingredients onto the actual making of potions.
"Brewing potions: a step-by-step guide," he read to her.
"Yay!" Lillian cheered excitedly as she sat up, eagerly listening to Professor Snape.
Snape paused and glared at her from over the rim of the book. He took a seat in a chair nearby when it became apparent that little Lillian wasn't falling asleep anytime soon. He closed the book suddenly with a sharp snap that made the smile disappear from Lillian's face.
"I think that's enough reading for one night," Professor Snape said with a tone of finality. "It's time for you to go to sleep. It's already past your bedtime and I don't want you to be tired tomorrow."
"Aww, I wanted to hear how to make potions," Lillian whined with a pout.
"Tomorrow," Professor Snape promised. "Now time for bed."
Lillian sighed and laid back on the couch as Professor Snape hastily re-tucked her in. She hardly listened as he warned her not to take one foot off the couch and her eyes were already closed by the time he crept away from the sitting room and went off to his potions lab.
Lillian was sound asleep by the time Professor Snape had started to brew a potion. She might have expected to have a dream about potions, but almost as soon as she drifted off, she found herself standing in a field of flowers, with the orange light of a spring sunset shining all around them. As she gazed at the flowers, she noticed that some were partially open, while others had fully bloomed but that a lot of them were closed up as if they were sleeping. She also noticed that a lot of them were pink tulips and that sent her a jolt.
She stared at all the pink tulips and remembered suddenly that there was something very important about pink tulips..
A big pink tulip..?
Jack had been lounging by his frozen lake, staring out at the frosty ice, wondering when the landscape would become more defined. For instance, that shadowy house in the distance. Would he ever get to see it without all the shadows? What did that house signify, anyway?
He was shaken from his reverie when he felt that something was very, very wrong. He stood and looked around, and spotted the last thing he thought he would ever see in here: Lillian herself.
A look of concern crossed his face as he wondered what the dangers were of entering your own mindscape. Did she even know what this place was?
His look of concern changed to panic when he noticed that several flowers around Lillian were starting to bloom all at once.
He leapt up and a winter wind whipped up suddenly as he gripped his staff tightly in his hand. In record time he had zoomed right over to Lillian who had hardly noticed, as she was staring at the flowers in concentration.
She remembered something about a giant flower.. Something important.
A giant flower and..
"Lillian!" Jack cried out as he landed not too far away from her.
Lillian startled at Jack's panicked shout and she looked up to see him standing there. For an instant, a look of complete recognition hit as her emerald eyes widened, but then in the next moment she winced and grabbed her head.
Jack saw the flowers surrounding Lillian were blooming rapidly and he grew even more worried.
"Stop it! It's too much at once!" he exclaimed, but all Lillian could do in response was whimper. She had no idea what he was talking about.
As the last of the spring sunset faded into twilight, Lillian found herself hit with a snowball right in the face. Before long, she found herself waking up suddenly with a vague memory of a dream of Jack pelting her with snowballs.
Back in her mindscape, Jack stared around at the flowers in dismay. So many of them were open!
This was bad.
Really bad.
What was he going to -
"Really? She couldn't last five minutes?" a deep voice behind him drawled.
Jack whirled around to see a tall figure with goldenish yellow eyes glinting in the dying sunlight.
"Pitch!" Jack exclaimed in relief. "What are you doing here?"
Pitch gave Jack a look, a somewhat condescending one as Jack should know why he was here.
"Obviously I'm here as you are, to protect Lillian's mind," he said as he took in the sight of so many open flowers. "One guardian is not enough, it seems."
Jack's shoulders slumped at that.
"You mean I'm not good enough," he said sadly with a sigh. "What are we going to do? All these open flowers are going to hurt her. They're her memories, and when they're open, it means she remembered something."
Pitch surveyed the open flowers.
"We'll have to close some of them. Some of her memories are quite powerful and even one will unlock several more. She must have seen something here that triggered this chain reaction. It was good of you to send her away. Her being here could have had disastrous consequences."
Jack nodded, but he hugged his staff uncertainly. He was sort of glad Pitch was there to take command, but he still felt like it meant that he was inadequate as a guardian for Lillian's mindscape.
"How do we do that?" he asked as Pitch walked over and knelt down by the flowers.
"We use our powers," he said simply.
Pitch cradled one of the flowers in his hands and as he channeled some of his power into it, it began to close. When he pulled his hands away from the flower, it had ceased to bloom and had closed back up as if sleeping.
Jack winced at the thought of using his powers.
"I don't think I can," he admitted. "When I accidentally used my powers, I made more flowers bloom."
"Hmm," Pitch said as he looked at all the open flowers. "Perhaps my powers have something to do with closing them then."
As the last of the light faded and the stars and moon came out, Jack watched Pitch close flower after flower carefully.
Jack only hoped it would be enough and that permanent damage hadn't been done to poor Lillian.
The next morning Professor Snape woke early and was surprised that his monitoring charm hadn't gone off. He was half expecting to be woken up during the middle of the night or else in the very early morning, but he hadn't heard a peep.
Frowning to himself, he quickly dressed and made his way to his sitting room, to see brown curls peeking out from underneath the blanket that Lillian currently had thrown over her head. He was about to speak to her, to see if she were awake when he heard a faint whimper coming from the lump in the blankets.
He hurried over and gently pulled the blanket back.
"Lillian?" he asked as he took in the sight of her face scrunched up in pain and tears streaming down her cheeks. How long had she been awake like this?
Lillian whimpered again and burrowed into the couch more.
"Hurts," she whispered softly.
"Where?" Professor Snape whispered back, his dark eyes gazing at her in concern.
"Everywhere," she said and then burst into tears.
Professor Snape looked bewildered, since the child had been just fine when she went to bed. Had something happened to her while she was sleeping?
He reached out and placed the back of his hand on her forehead. She felt a little warm, as though she were running a slight temperature, but not overly so.
He looked at her shrewdly as he tried to ignore her tears. It wouldn't do to get all emotional himself, he wouldn't be able to help Lillian that way.
"Is it your head?" he asked.
"It won't stop h-hurting..!" Lillian sobbed and then winced at the loud sound of her own tears and voice.
Professor Snape sighed and wondered how that had come about. She did have a long day yesterday. Had it been too much for her?
He furrowed his brow as he swept off to his potions lab to fetch a headache reliever. He paused, however, when he had found it in his lab and picked up the vial. This dosage was for someone much older than Lillian. He didn't have the proper dosage for a small child. In fact, it wasn't recommended to give a young child like Lillian a lot of potions.
But was she a young child?
A Seasonal, he was certain, could be very old. But if Lillian was a Seasonal, that meant that she wasn't even a true witch. Would the potion have an adverse effect on her? However, the calming draught had seemed to work well enough..
Looking irritated at the thought of accidentally poisoning his cousin, and then having the headache-inducing thought of precisely how a Seasonal could possibly be related to him, he grabbed the vial and hurried out to his sitting room.
He helped Lillian sit up and uncorked the vial for her.
"Sip it until your head stops hurting," Professor Snape told Lillian as he handed the vial to her.
Lillian sipped at the potion and barely grimaced at the taste since her head hurt so much. After a long moment of just sipping the potion, she gave a huge sigh of relief and slumped back against the armrest of the couch, careful to not spill the rest of the vial of potion.
"Better?" Professor Snape asked her dryly as he reclaimed the vial from her.
"I felt like my head was going to explode!" Lillian exclaimed.
"You don't have any idea what brought this on?" Professor Snape asked.
Lillian shook her head.
"I had a dream that Jack threw snowballs at me, I think," Lillian told him.
Professor Snape frowned a little, as he remembered a similar situation he had been in. Could she have been..?
With a sigh, he shook his head. He had been hoping to enter her mindscape today and take a good look around, but with her recovering from a migraine he couldn't possibly do that now.
He gazed down at his cousin and wondered for the millionth time how he could possibly be related to a possible Seasonal. If only she had her memories!
He frowned a little in irritation since he wouldn't be able to help her gain any new memories today either. It would be unwise to do so after a migraine like that.
"I think you're going to be having a quiet day today," he told Lillian after he stoppered the remaining vial of headache reliever and pocketed it, in case it was needed later on.
"Aw, I wanted to go outside," Lillian pouted.
Professor Snape paused as he took in that statement. If she were a Seasonal, she would be drawn to the outdoors. It would be almost cruel to keep her locked inside all the time.
He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair.
"If you rest until lunch and behave yourself, I might be inclined to take you outside later today," he said finally, after a long moment.
"Yay!" Lillian cheered as she leapt to her feet on the couch and did a little happy dance.
Professor Snape's lips twitched, but he refrained from smiling as his brow rose.
"Is this how you rest?" he asked her dryly.
Lillian blushed and promptly sat back down on the couch.
"Um.. yes?" she said with a sheepish grin.
Professor Snape gave her a look as he grabbed her wooden box and deposited it in her lap.
"Find something to do quietly," he instructed. "I'll make us some breakfast."
As Professor Snape swept off to his kitchenette, Lillian opened her box to find something quiet to do. While she perused the things that were packed away, she couldn't help but think about the weird dream she had about Jack pelting her with snowballs.
She shook her head as she pulled a book out and began to quietly read.
While Professor Snape and Lillian were resting and sorting out breakfast, Harry was with his friends at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
Harry was poking at his eggs distractedly with a fork while Ron and Hermione were talking in hushed tones. Harry couldn't help but notice the lack of Professor Snape and Lillian at the breakfast table, nor how Professor Lockhart kept giving Professor Snape's seat anxious glances, as though hoping the man would suddenly appear out of thin air.
Harry felt his face burn as he thought of his detention the other night with Professor Lockhart. The Professor had made him copy lines (unbeknown to Harry, Lockhart had thought of making Harry help answer his fan mail, but then had thought better of it, especially when he thought of how Lillian would laugh at the notion), and kept peppering him with all sorts of "helpful" advice, such as how he should take care to pay more attention to how he dresses in public.
Harry had turned beet red at the time and he struggled not to do the same as he thought of what Professor Lockhart had said. Harry just knew that it had been Professor Lockhart who had sent him all those nice clothes and it had him feeling conflicted. He loved that he finally had clothes that fit him, but the thought that a professor had bought them for him was humiliating.
It wasn't his fault of course that the Dursleys wouldn't give him proper clothes, but it made him feel a little strange that Professor Lockhart thought he chose to dress like that on purpose.
Harry tuned back in to Ron and Hermione's conversation to hear them continuing to wonder what that mysterious voice Harry had heard during his detention was. Harry had told Ron about it right away, but they hadn't gotten the chance to tell Hermione about it until just before breakfast.[1] Thankfully it was still rather early and the Great Hall was a bit empty, so they could get away with having such a conversation and didn't have to worry about being overheard.
Harry had had difficulty sleeping after hearing that awful voice, and he couldn't help but wonder what it had meant by killing? He had tried to keep an eye out on the way down to breakfast, but he hadn't noticed anything that looked.. torn. He shivered a little at the thought of finding something as gruesome as a ripped and torn body and looked back down at his scrambled eggs, as he realized he was no longer hungry for breakfast.
Just as he was mourning the fact that those eggs would go to waste (he was still relishing in the fact he could eat what he liked after that terrible summer at the Dursley's) a pair of hands appeared in his field of vision and each scooped a rather large spoonful of eggs onto Harry's plate.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he looked up to see the Weasley twins sitting across from them suddenly.
Harry didn't know what to think about the twins constantly trying to feed him. Ever since they left the Burrow, he kept finding extra spoonfuls of food being heaped onto his plate as though Mrs. Weasley was there. Harry had noticed the fact that the twins were always around when it happened and it made him feel.. odd. It was one thing to be mothered by Mrs. Weasley, but the twins? [2] He wasn't sure what to feel about that.
"You need - " Fred started.
" - to eat more." George finished.
"We know seekers are small," Fred continued.
"But we don't want you blown away," George finished for his twin with a smirk.
Harry blushed at that and looked down at his scrambled eggs awkwardly. Before Uncle Vernon had locked him in his room, he hadn't been allowed to eat much at meals anyway and the rich food of Hogwarts always took him a little bit to get used to. He supposed last year everyone had still been getting used to sitting with Harry Potter to notice that he didn't eat much at first.
Rather than comment on what the twins said, Harry uncomfortably started to eat his scrambled eggs.
"Lay off," Ron said with a frown a the twins, noticing how uncomfortable Harry was at their teasing. "Harry had a rough night last night."
Fred raised an eyebrow at this as he looked at Harry who was eating his eggs slowly. He did notice that Harry looked very tired and tense.
"Rough night?" George questioned, asking the question that was clearly on Fred's mind as they both looked at Harry.
Harry, who was unable to answer due to having his mouth full, had Ron helpfully answer for him.
"He had detention with Lockhart," Ron responded for Harry. "And I had to polish all the trophies in the trophy room.. I don't think my arm will ever be the same."
Ron looked down at his poor arm, which was still sore from all the polishing he had to do, but that still hadn't stopped him from scarfing half his breakfast down already.
"Harry had to write lines," Hermione added on with an eye roll at Ron's theatrics. "But really, that isn't a very good detention for flying a car to Hogwarts," she said a little sniffily.
"What did you - "
" - have to write?" the twins asked Harry.
Harry managed to swallow his mouthful of eggs to answer.
"'I must not risk my life to get to Hogwarts. Next time I will use my owl,'" Harry replied with a forced scowl. In truth, he was still really freaked out about that mysterious voice.
"I still don't know how you two forgot about Hedwig," Hermione said with a shake of her head.
"We panicked, alright?" Ron said grumpily as he stabbed his remaining eggs with his fork.
Hermione opened her mouth, but whatever else she was going to say was cut off by the arrival of the morning owls. Hermione wasn't too pleased about all the owls around their food, but she still paid the owl that flew down by her and gratefully accepted the Daily Prophet that it had for her.[3] She winced in sympathy for poor Harry, since they were still running articles about the 'Boy Who Lived' at Hogwarts with the famous Gilderoy Lockhart.
She disappeared behind the Prophet and Harry tried really hard not to notice the phrase 'Boy Who Lived' on the front page.
It was easier said than done, but a rather plain barn owl pecking his hand for attention distracted him nicely.
"Ow!" Harry exclaimed as he suddenly noticed the irritated owl glaring at him. "Sorry," he added sheepishly as the twins snickered from across the table at him.
Harry untied the rolled up letter from the owl and it flew away in a huff. He untied the letter and it sprang open a little, only to curl up again as it had been tightly rolled. He carefully unfurled it and started to read the letter while Ron looked on curiously, still munching on breakfast.
"Who's writin' 'oo?" Ron asked through his mouthful of food.
Harry wrinkled his nose at Ron's manners and Hermione smacked Ron on the arm.
"That is completely disgusting!" Hermione exclaimed.
Ron shrugged at her while the twins rolled their eyes at each other. They were quite used to Ron's terrible table manners.
"Now Ronnie," Fred grinned at Ron.
"It isn't nice to pry," George said as he whisked the letter out of Harry's hands.
"Precisely," Fred said as he stole the letter from George and promptly frowned as he read who the sender was.
"Hey!" Harry complained as he tried to grab the letter back from Fred.
"Who's - " Fred began.
" - Remus Lupin?" George finished for his twin, as he peered over at the letter as well.
"'Oo?" Ron said with his mouth still full of food and winced as Hermione smacked him again. "'eeey!"
"Stop acting like a barbarian and I'll stop hitting you!" Hermione admonished.
"He was a friend of my dad's," Harry said a little shortly as he made to grab the letter again and it was held out of his reach.
"Really?" Fred said as he looked at the letter interestedly, but it was stolen out of his hands by Lee Jordan, who had finally tracked down to where his friends had gotten to.
Lee glanced at the letter and saw that it was addressed to Harry and couldn't help but grin a little at the twins' antics. He handed the letter back to Harry as he took a seat next to Fred.
Harry gratefully rolled the letter back up and stuffed it into his pocket before anyone else could steal it from him.
Lee helped himself to some breakfast while Harry put his letter out of the twins' reach.
"So, did you two get around to asking yet?" Lee asked as he glanced at the twins, who suddenly looked sheepish.
Lee sighed and looked apologetically at Harry.
"They get distracted easily," he felt the need to explain.
"I hadn't noticed," Harry commented dryly as he took a drink of his pumpkin juice.
"Anyway, they were supposed to ask - " Lee started, only to get cut off.
" - if you're up for an impromptu practice - " Fred interrupted.
" - With two gorgeous beaters I might add," George inserted as he gave an imaginary flip of his hair that had Hermione giggling while Ron scowled at his brother.
" - of Quidditch!" the twins finished together with Lee Jordan.
It took Harry all of two seconds to think about it as his face lit up with a grin.
"Of course!" he said happily as he dug into his eggs with more enthusiasm, mysterious voices and his letter from Mr. Lupin shoved instantly to the back of his mind.
"Excellent," the twins replied as they exchanged a triumphant look with each other. It was their job to cheer people up (and prank them) and they felt like their job was done with Harry.
"Can I come?" Ron asked as he had finally finished his mouthful of food and the remainder of his breakfast.
Harry was about to tell Ron that of course, he could come, but an overly enthusiastic voice in the background had him groaning.
"Oh! Oh! Me too!" Colin piped up as he made his way over, dragging a sleepy Ginny Weasley[4] along with him.
Much to Lillian's delight, Professor Snape had said that Lillian was sufficiently rested to go outside and play that afternoon. She had cheered at that and had raced for the door as soon as he gave the go ahead.
"I didn't mean..!" he exclaimed exasperatedly as Lillian bolted.
He shook his head with a sigh and marched after her, knowing that she was at least headed for the entrance hall so that she could go outside.
"Freedom!" Lillian shouted as she burst out of the front doors in the entrance hall after heaving one open.
Lillian grinned as she practically flew down the steps and onto the ground. The instant her feet hit the ground, spring flowers sprang up all around her and the sun, which had been partially hidden behind some clouds, had suddenly appeared and began shining down in force as a gentle spring breeze started up.
Harry was on his broom and was having fun racing around with the twins while Ron trailed after them on a school broom. Harry was distracted from his race, however, by the sudden warmth of the spring breeze.
The air had been a more chilly morning autumn air and now..
"Ohh, and Harry falls behind as the twins make a comeback!" Lee Jordan exclaimed as he commentated on the happenings out on the Quidditch field, much to Colin and Ginny's delight and Hermione's ire.
Hermione sat next to an overly enthusiastic Colin in the stands, who had Ginny Weasley on his other side and Lee on the end. Hermione was thoroughly irritated because she didn't particularly care for Quidditch or flying and had brought a library book outside to occupy herself with, so she could support her friends but not actually have to endure anything to do with Quidditch - or so she had hoped, but with Lee shouting out everything that was going on, her concentration was shattered and she still had to endure the ravings of the fanatics (namely Colin and Lee, while Ginny cheered as she looked on jealously).
Harry heard Lee shouting and put on a spurt of speed, shooting past the twins and zooming to the goalpost, which was their finish line.
"Annnd Harry Potter wins!" Lee said as Colin and Ginny cheered.
Harry grinned as he raised his arm in the air to wave at his friends and then he heard the unmistakable click! of a camera shutter and his grin faded a bit. He looked over to see Colin capturing his win and sighed.
While Harry was celebrating his win against the twins, Lillian was racing around outside, ignoring all the spring flowers that were popping up. She paused in mid-step however, when she remembered the Whomping Willow, and wondered how it was, even though she had just seen it the other day.
She glanced back towards the front doors and didn't notice Professor Snape yet. Maybe a quick peek couldn't hurt.
She quickly took off towards the greenhouses, hoping she could be discreet, but with Lillian being Lillian, there was no hope of that.
After their race, the twins suggested that they all play catch to practice, since it wouldn't be safe to use actual bludgers and impractical to use a snitch at the moment, what with Ron practicing as well. So they wound up forming a small circle and using a soft, squishy ball they had scrounged up from who-knows-where to pass back and forth.
The twins had at first teased Ron by throwing tricky shots to him, but it soon became obvious that Ron was very flustered and not as confident as Harry and the twins on a broom yet, let alone trying to fly and catch a moving object at the same time.
Harry managed to catch the ball which had been thrown to him by George, and taking pity on poor Ron, Harry gently tossed the ball to him, rather than have one of the twins do it and make Ron even more flustered.
Ron overreacted to the throw and made a wild grab at the ball, which unfortunately sailed right through his arms. Blushing as much as his hair, Ron quickly dove down and just managed to catch the ball before it hit the ground.
He straightened up and took one glance at the twins' exasperated looks and turning even redder, he hastily passed the ball to Harry, throwing it far too short to reach him.
Harry saw Ron facepalm right after throwing the ball, but Harry wasn't an excellent flyer for nothing.
He darted forward on his broom, his eyes never leaving the descending ball.
"Oh my gosh!" Colin squealed as his camera shutter clicked away.
"And Harry goes into a spectacular dive!" Lee Jordan roared as even Hermione had taken her eyes off her book to watch.
"Ohh, Harry, be careful!" Hermione called out, but of course, Harry wasn't listening.
The wind was whistling in Harry's ears and his friends' shouts became unimportant noise as he kept his eyes on the prize.
In fact, if it wasn't for the bright line of predominately pink flowers, he might not have been distracted by anything. But unfortunately for him, there was a magically appearing line of flowers and it was this that caused him to tear his eyes away from the ball he was chasing.
"What the - " Harry gasped as he saw a small figure far down below running past the pitch in the direction of the greenhouses, with a bright line of flowers trailing after it.
If he didn't know any better, that almost looked like -
"HARRY!" Hermione screamed suddenly in alarm.
Harry's attention was immediately brought back to the fact that he'd been diving in midair and now suddenly, he realized that the ground was far too close for comfort.
He wrenched his broom upwards at the last second and toppled to the ground, falling over on his back breathlessly as his friends all cried out in alarm and came running over.
Harry sat up and tried to catch his breath so he could explain that he was just fine, but the next shout caused his eyes to widen and for his breath to leave him again.
"MISTER POTTER!" None other than Professor Snape thundered as Harry sat up.
Harry stared at the irate Professor as the twins, Ron, Hermione, Colin, Ginny and Lee all raced over at top speed.
Professor Snape stormed over with his normally sallow face turning red as he glared at Harry.
"What do you think you're doing?!" he shouted at Harry.
Harry flinched back at the sound of the professor practically screaming at him as all he could do was stare at Snape with wide eyes.
"Foolish boy!" Snape continued, ignoring the flinch from Harry and the glares he was suddenly receiving from the other students. "Do you have a death wish?!"
"He was just flying!" Ron spoke up as he glared at Snape in hatred.
Hermione made a rather shrill noise that might have been part of a snort of disbelief, but nobody seemed to be paying her any mind.
"I - " Harry said breathlessly, "..I.."
"Well?!" Professor Snape demanded as he ignored in what his opinion was a pointless outburst from Weasley.
Harry didn't respond as he seemed to be having a hard time catching his breath.
"Professor," Hermione interrupted worriedly, "Harry needs the hospital wing! He almost died!"
Professor Snape startled at that as he was snapped out of glaring at Harry to look at the boy more critically. He saw the wide, green eyes, looking at him full of panic and the fact that Potter seemed to have stopped breathing altogether.
He sighed in consternation and noticed the trail of spring flowers leading off past the greenhouses that seemed to be heading towards the Whomping Willow.
Wonderful.
"I will deal with this Miss Granger," Professor Snape snapped suddenly at Hermione, his dark eyes turning towards the remaining students to glare at them. "I suggest that you, Weasley - " he paused, as he remembered how many Weasley's were present at the moment, " - Ron and Ginny - and Mister Creevey all go on your way. Now."
"I'm not leaving Harry with you!" Ron said stubbornly as he glared at Snape.
Professor Snape's eyes glittered with malice as his expression soured further. He did not need this.
"If you don't do as I say, I'll deduct fifty points from Gryffindor," he snarled at Ron. "Get moving. Now."
Ron found himself dragged off against his will by both Hermione and Ginny, the former who was reassuring Ron that they could go visit Harry in the hospital wing later. Colin paused to snap a quick picture of the panic-stricken Harry and the very angry professor before hurrying off after them.
Professor Snape knew that he could send Harry off to the hospital wing with the remaining students, but he didn't particularly want to have them explain that he, Professor Snape, had set Harry off into a panic attack.
The last thing he needed on top of everything else was to have Madam Pomfrey scolding him again.
"Weasley! Weasley! Jordan!" Professor Snape barked out, his voice coming out sharper in his irritation.
"Sir?" Lee asked uncertainly as he glanced at Harry, who seemed frozen on the spot despite the flinch from Professor Snape's sharp tone.
"I want you three to follow those flowers," he demanded as he pointed at the trail of flowers that lead toward the Whomping Willow. "I expect you'll find Lillian at the end of them and I will expect you to return her to me in perfect condition. Am I understood?"
"Y-yes, sir," Lee stammered in complete bewilderment as Professor Snape strode off to Harry.
"Mister Potter," Snape said more gently as he looked down at the young boy. "If you'll come with me."
Harry found himself being helped to his feet and in a daze, he realized Professor Snape had grabbed a hold of his arm and was leading him off towards the castle. He had the presence of mind to glance back and see one of the twins helpfully scoop up his precious Nimbus 2000.
George held Harry's broom over one shoulder as Fred pointed in the direction of the flowers.
"To Lillian!" Fred proclaimed as they began to march off toward the Willow.
Lee scratched his head in confusion as he followed after the twins.
"Does anyone else find this really weird, even for Hogwarts?"
[1]: Ok, so I checked the book to make sure but Harry only tells Ron about the voice he heard in detention. Immediately after that night it just skips right to October. I guess we're supposed to assume he told Hermione, but I wanted to include it in here. I also checked after the attack to see if Hermione was mentioned (or what she had to say about the whole Harry's hearing voices thing), and Harry did pull her and Ron aside after they escape the classroom after being questioned by Dumbledore, but Harry only talks to Ron. I understand that Ron is Harry's best guy friend, but jeesh! I feel like Hermione gets forgotten about sometimes.
[2]: So the twins helped to rescue Harry from the Dursleys in the book, saw the bars on the window and can see Harry is scrawny enough to assume he's either not being fed properly or starved and then.. nothing. Yeah, after that in the book, they don't care anymore. In fact, nobody cares. Yes, I liked reading about Harry at the Dursleys, but nobody cared? Anyway, I can see how Ron can be explained away by his being young, but the twins are old enough where they'd be more concerned. So I had them channel Mrs. Weasley a little.
[3]: I can't remember when it's first mentioned that Hermione starts getting the Daily Prophet in the books, but I figured she'd start as early as possible and not just because it would help out the plot.
[4]: Colin doesn't get mentioned too much other than pestering Harry, so I thought I'd include him a bit more. Ginny also doesn't get mentioned a whole lot, despite her being a huge plot point in this book, so I put her in this chapter too. I figure since she and Colin are in the same year that they'd be friends, what with their mutual fangirling over Harry.
Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Yes, the character cameo I was referring to earlier was Pitch. I just had to throw him in there, even if he is only there to help guard Lillian's mind for now. I figure as she regains more memories and her mindscape becomes more defined, she'd get more guardians. If you were wondering, I purposely didn't show what memories Lillian was remembering in her mindscape since it just would have been a confused jumble of images all rushing at her at once - that's why she got a migraine from it.
I also hope you guys liked the parts with the twins in there. I feel like they get ignored and they are too fun not to include. I was debating about the end of the chapter, since I wasn't sure about having Snape leave Lillian in the hands of the twins of all people, but I also wanted Snape to have a moment with Harry, where Harry can see Snape as an actual human being for a change and not just him being a bastard constantly. I also hope you don't mind that Harry and Co. are shown more in this chapter, but I thought it'd be interesting to see what they'd all be up to, since technically we're in non-book territory now, since the book skips right to October.
I thought about showing what Jack Frost was up to, but we already got a glimpse of him previously and there really isn't much for him to do until he finally shows up at Hogwarts. I imagine that it won't be too much longer until the first frost, so we'll see if either Halloween or Jack shows up first. :)
As always, if you have any comments/anything, feel free to let me know! I also want to give a shoutout to all the favs and follows I get, since that lets me know that people are still interested in this even after all these months. I won't say when the next chapter will come out, but I hope it will be before 4 or 5 months have gone by.
Next chapter should start off with the twins finally meeting Lillian!
Edit: I can't believe I forgot Colin. Yeesh.